"Mail is the lifeblood of system administrators. Having a great,
not good, mail system in place is key to being productive in many
cases. If you can escape the corporate horror of Microsoft Outlook
and use a more capable client like Mutt, you can be much more
productive. One of the support tools I depend on for productive use
of Mutt is OfflineIMAP
"What is OfflineIMAP? The name says it all, really. I turned to
OfflineIMAP for two reasons. One, I needed a good way to download
mail from Gmail. Second, I decided to start using Mutt again to
streamline my mail processing and Gmail's interface just wasn't
cutting it.
"Technically, Mutt does do IMAP, but I've found it to be very
slow. OfflineIMAP is relatively speedy. Plus, you know, it does
give the benefit of allowing you to process mail offline, far away
from the loving embrace of a network connection. This means if I
want to slog through a backlog of email without distraction, I can
slurp down my email, head to my favorite coffee shop and slam
through my mail with a good cup of coffee."
