Re: To IMAP or not to IMAP

[Marcus Frings]

* jesse@phiwumbda.org (Jesse F. Hughes) wrote:

> Does anyone know of a site that compares various IMAP servers?  I'd
> like to follow Kai's advice and try out an IMAP server alongside
> unison + agent and see which one works better for me.  I'd like to
> choose, say, a couple of mail groups for each method and see how it
> goes.

Well, there are some popular IMAP servers:

Courier IMAP
UW IMAP
Cyrus IMAP
Dovecot IMAP

A very short and incomplete review (anyone is welcome to comment this):

UW IMAP: The oldest IMAP server.You don't want this. Too many security
         bugs in the past. Stores mails in mbox format only. Developers
         are said to be ignorant in fixing known bugs. Easy and quick
         setup.

Courier IMAP: _My_ favourite choice. Small, fast. Stores mails in
              Maildir format only. Very few security related bugs in the
              past. Easy und quick setup.

Cyrus IMAP: Too overloaded for home usage. It's full of features and a
            very great IMAP server but setup is a little more
            complicated compared to others. Mails are stored in Cyrus'
            own format which is neither mbox nor Maildir.

Dovecot IMAP: A new one in the series of IMAP servers but still at an
              early stage. Stores mail in either mbox or Maildir
              format. Developers already took care of security while
              developing Dovecot.

I recommend Courier or Dovecot.              
              
HTH,
Marcus
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