I read my mail via IMAP. From various computers. Every so often I run fetchmail on one computer to download all mail and remove it from the remote servers. I then don't have the full story on the server, but that's perfectly fine.
There's one annyoing bit about this setup. Mail that I've read via IMAP is flagged as new when downloaded to my computer. I would prefer to have only new mail flagged as new. In practice, my workaround is to make sure I've read all mail before on the server before running fetchmail; and then mark everything as read when downloaded. But an annoying inner voice tells me that this is not a satisfactory solution. Who's to blame? Mutt for not properly flagging mail as read via IMAP? Me for not configuring it to do so? Fetchmail for not honoring the IMAP status bits (whatever they are) when downloading mail? Me, again, for not configuring it to do so? Or simply the Internet gods for not having made the behaviour I want attainable? Or, again, me for desiring the impossible? Michael