Re: what is the benefit of imap? Another meta-question.
On Thu, Mar 19, 2009 at 07:06:12AM +0100, Joost Kremers wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 18, 2009 at 11:51:56PM -0600, Paul E Condon wrote:
> > Another meta-question, where can I find a straight-forward description of
> > imap, without the enthusiastic pushing? What is it?
>
> it's just a protocol to access email on a remote server. that description
> would apply to pop3 as well. the difference between them is that imap
> leaves the messages on the server, while pop3 downloads them to the local
> machine.
*By default* in both cases. There's nothing that actually forces you
to leave mail on an IMAP server, neither is there anything that forces
you to remove mail when you download it from a POP3 server. However
most POP3 services expect you to remove mail when you download it and
most IMAP services expect you to keep mail on the server.
--
Chris Green