[conspire] Linux program to remove mail from server?

[Edmund J. Biow]

Bill Moseley wrote:

>On Tue, Apr 26, 2005 at 01:18:44AM -0700, Edmund J. Biow wrote:
>  
>
>>Anybody know of a nice brain-dead, X11, open source Linux GUI program 
>>that removes email from your ISP's server?  I have several different 
>>computers in different locations (and even different operating systems 
>>on the same computer) so I store my email on my ISP's server for a week 
>>or so and download it multiple times.  Yes, I know, I'm a bandwidth hog.
>>    
>>
>
>Have you considered running a machine locally with imap?  You use
>fetchmail (or something close) to fetch mail from your pop accounts
>onto your local machine.  Then any other machine in your local LAN can
>read mail from that and it's centrally located.  Throw in a webmail
>application and you can read your mail from anywhere without an email
>client, too.  It's reasonably easy to setup, with a little googling.
>  
>
I have considered it, Bill, and I've downloaded a distro that is 
supposed to be good for that type of thing called SME Server
http://contribs.org/modules/news/

I've located a box to install it on, a mighty K6 300 with 128 MB of ECC 
SDRAM.  I've even found a little 2.4 GB hard drive.  Now I need to find 
time to set it up.

>>In Windows-land there are a number of programs that enable you to check 
>>    
>>
>[...]
>
>For quite a few years I ran Windows on my desktop and Linux under the
>desk.  I spent all day connected to the Linux box but used Windows for
>browsing and eamil.  My desktop was dual boot, but that meant I was
>sill almost always using Windows.  Finally I wiped the drive and
>installed Linux on the desktop thinking that would be the only way to
>really learn to use Linux.
>
>I spent months looking for applications that worked like they did on
>Windows.  It was discouraging.  Mail was the application I had the
>hardest time.  I tried so many graphical clients but they all didn't
>work like my favorite Eudora.  Many seemed to want to replace Outlook.
>
>  
>
Well I'm afraid I'm still in this stage.  I'm slowly learning Linuxy 
things like how to use the command line and vi, but I have a lousy 
memory (years of substance abuse, I guess), so it will take a while for 
those things to become second nature (if they ever do), absent a program 
of forced immersion like you undertook.

>Someone finally convinced me to stop trying to run Windows on Linux
>and suggested I use mutt + vim.  Took some work to learn (still
>learning) but now I cannot imagine using a graphical client -- and
>when I have to use windows now it drive me *crazy* and how inflexible
>it is.
>  
>
I'm not quite there yet, but I do feel like something is missing when 
I'm at a Windows box (maybe the challenge & the thrill of getting 
something to work the way I want).  Besides, the rest of the world will 
continue to send me Word docs, html email, Excel spread sheets, etc.  I 
want to keep a foot in both camps.

>Anyway, I guess what I would suggest is trying to do things a new way
>instead of trying to make them work like they did on your old
>platform.
>
>  
>
>>Also, does anyone have any suggestions as to any other good places to 
>>look for Linux software?
>>    
>>
>
>What distribution are you using?
>  
>
At the moment, Slackware 10.0 (this box) and Slackware-based Vectorlinux 
SOHO v.5.0, Fedora Core 3 and Fedora Core 3 based BLAG 2.9999~, and last 
week I installed Kubuntu Hoary Hedgehog (which I like a lot).  I also 
have a couple of broken distros that I need to fix or replace, SUSE 9.1 
Personal & Yoper 2.1 (I was too aggressive upgrading, I guess). 

Obviously this is too many unrelated distros to administer comfortably 
for someone of my limited skillset, but I'm still feeling my way around, 
and once you've devoted many hours to configuring a computer so that you 
are comfortable, it is hard to just format the partition.   At this 
point I'm most attracted to a tweaked Debian derivative for less 
experienced users, like Kanotix, Mepis, Knoppix or Kubuntu.  And I'd 
like to play around with thin clients to see if I could reduce net 
computer administration time for my little LAN.

>I wonder if I have any mail applications available to me:
>
> $ apt-cache search mail | wc -l
> 943
>
>  
>
I don't think I have my sources configured well enough to give me that 
kind of choice.

swaret --list mail
swaret 1.7.0test4-1
Listing all available Packages...
fetchmail-6.2.5-i486-1 (648 kB) [Status: INSTALLED]
getmail-3.2.4-noarch-1 (66 kB) [Status: NOT INSTALLED (Installed: 
getmail-4.2.0-noarch-1)]
metamail-2.7-i486-2 (132 kB) [Status: INSTALLED]
procmail-3.15.2-i386-1 (137 kB) [Status: INSTALLED]
sendmail-8.12.11-i486-2 (1229 kB) [Status: INSTALLED]
sendmail-cf-8.12.11-noarch-3 (255 kB) [Status: INSTALLED]

slapt-get --search mail
aaa_base 10.0.0-noarch-1 [inst=yes]: aaa_base (Basic Linux filesystem 
package)
bsd-games 2.13-i386-6 [inst=yes]: bsd-games (Classic BSD text games 
collection)
elm 2.5.7-i486-1 [inst=yes]: elm (Menu-driven user mail program)
fetchmail 6.2.5-i486-1 [inst=yes]: fetchmail (mail retrieval and 
forwarding utility)
getmail 3.2.4-noarch-1 [inst=no]: getmail (POP3 mail retriever)
gkrellm 2.2.1-i486-1 [inst=yes]: gkrellm (GNU Krell Monitors)
imapd 4.60-i486-1 [inst=yes]: imapd (IMAP4rev1 2004.350 from pine4.60)
logrotate 3.6.8-i486-1 [inst=yes]: logrotate (system log rotation tool)
metamail 2.7-i486-2 [inst=yes]: metamail (MIME extensions for mail)
mutt 1.4.2.1i-i486-1 [inst=yes]: The mutt mail client.
nail 10.7-i486-1 [inst=yes]: nail (a simple mail client)
pine 4.60-i486-1 [inst=yes]: pine (a menu driven mail client)
popa3d 0.6.4-i486-1 [inst=yes]: popa3d (a POP3 daemon)
procmail 3.15.2-i386-1 [inst=yes]: procmail (mail processing and local 
delivery program)
sendmail 8.12.11-i486-2 [inst=yes]: sendmail (mail transfer agent)
sendmail-cf 8.12.11-noarch-3 [inst=yes]: sendmail-cf (configuration 
files for sendmail)
uucp 1.07-i486-1 [inst=yes]: uucp (Taylor UUCP)
getmail 4.2.0-noarch-1 [inst=yes]: getmail (POP3 mail retriever)
 for Slackware)
slapt-get 0.9.9j-i386-1 [inst=yes]: slapt-get (APT like system for 
Slackware)

>>I'd love 
>>to abandon Windows altogether, however I haven't found completely 
>>satisfactory Linux replacements for some of my old Windows apps.
>>    
>>
>
>Which apps are those?
>
>  
>
Web apts seem pretty OK, for the most part (except this, of course).

However multimedia tools are not so great.  First of all, most distros 
require me to jump through a bunch of hoops just to work with things 
like mp3s (I understand that SUSE, which always had mp3 support out of 
the box, has disabled

I'm gradually transferring my CD collection to LAME mp3s (I'd use ogg, 
but there is not much support for it in the portable music player 
market, particularly the low end CD players like my Panasonic).  And I 
like to rename and tag my files in a very particular way.  MP3Tag in 
Windows is just a great tool. With a few clicks I can take an album, 
rename the songs in just the way I want, reformat the tags the way I 
like, shorten the file name to 64 characters so I can fit them in a ISO, 
make a nice relative play list in a directory of my choice, etc.

Easytag, Juk, Amarok, and KID just don't work nearly as well. 

There are lots of programs that I don't like quite as well as their 
Windows counterparts, but that are acceptable to me, e.g.

Winamp vs. XMMS, Amarok, Zinf, Xine, Totem, etc.
Exact Audio Copy vs. XRipper, Arson, Grip, K3B, KAudioCreator, etc.

Still, I'm trying to work my way in to Linux, so I'll rip my albums & 
listen to them (to make sure they're OK) in Linux, then transfer them to 
a Windows box for renaming, tag modification, playlist generation, then 
transfer them back.

Thanks for the suggestions, as ever.  I'll keep the list apprised if I 
find something that suits me.

Ed