[SWLUG] mail system setup

[bascule]

hi peeps,

i'd like some comment on my plans for mail, i wish to set up one of my boxes 
to collect all my mail and then serve it to other boxes via imap so that i 
can manage mail sensibly from any box with any of the os' on that box, plus 
setup a webmail interface to access my mail from 'outside'.

my first thought was fetchmail plus some imap server, is this the right logic?
fetchmail grabs my mail, dumps it to a directory, then an imap server serves 
it?

does fetchmail have to pass the mail on to something like postfix for delivery 
into local mailboxes/directories? or will it leave the mail somewhere useful 
on it's own?

i want to migrate all my current mailo folders from kmail to whatever setup i 
have, the mail seems is stored in mbox format, is this going to make a 
problem in migration? i'm hoping that just copying my current ~/Mail 
directory is all that will be needed, 

i'm also hoping that i will be able to set gotmail up on the mail box to fetch 
my hotmail stuff, dump it into the ~/Mail directory and have whatever 
imap/webmail prog serve it from there?

i can see that having two progs serving the same mail repository with two 
(incl. gotmail) putting into it might be problematic - filelocking perhaps? 

i'm also unsure of how filtering is done using imap, will i have to use 
fetchmail to filter the mail it fetches into the different folders or can the 
imap prog do that, do imap clients (i've never used imap before) display mail 
locally according to local rules without changeing how the mail is stored on 
the imap server? (implication is that i have to set each imap client up 
individually)

does anyone here already do this sort of thing, what would you recommend, i'll 
be collecting about 2-3 hundred messages a day from a variety of pop3 sources 
plus fetching the occasional hotmail spam message (to keep the hotmail 
account alive!)

also (already with the also - ed!) i'm thinking of putting this on a seperate 
box, an old patriot pcbook thing about 3" high and 11" square, it has a 300 
mhz MII cpu plus it will have an old 1 gb drive and unknown ram (have to get 
some), does this seem reasonable?

flames and dissections welcome

bascule

-- 
There are many reasons for being friends with someone. The fact that he's 
pointing a deadly weapon at you is among the top four.
(The Last Continent)