[Alpine-info] O365 XOAUTH2 via fetchmail

[Carl Edquist]

On Thu, 21 Apr 2022, Carlos E. R. wrote:


> imapsync, which I mentioned in another post, doesn't care. It syncs 

> between imap servers, so in my case, one remote, one local using 

> dovecot; and my dovecot writes to mbox.

>

> It could be set as a cron job.

>

> Of course, if you are not already using a local imap server it is an 

> extra complication.


Thanks again for mentioning this - at some point i may try that out if i 
get around to setting up dovcot locally.

Yeah, while i find the idea of running a local mail server (like dovcot) 
kind of interesting (and in particular with things like indexed full-text 
search), i have kind of come full circle and, for the time being anyway, 
it strikes me that nothing beats the delightfully-retro simplicity of a 
mailbox just being a file on your filesystem.  Mail gets delivered by 
fetchmail (or whatever) to /var/mail/$USER; you read and compose mail in 
alpine; and alpine (or your scripts) send it via sendmail.

Maybe it's just nostalgia talking, but most of the time i feel like the 
modern email experience hasn't really improved on the classic model.

I get that the idea of IMAP and getting to "leave your mail on the server" 
is seductively convenient, compared to owning and managing your own data 
(especially if you want to access it from multiple devices), but then 
again this probably explains why gmail got to be so big.

...

And to follow up on a comment Eduardo made, I do hope that even if the 
giant corporations manage to exile IMAP and SMTP from their fortresses, 
these classic protocols will still enjoy a good, long, free life in the 
wilderness of the borderlands, among their fellow average-sized programs.

[insert watercolor painting of early-morning wildlife in the forrest]

Carl