Rather than keep creeping the size of the last post, here's the deal: I'm installing an IMAP server locally on my Macs so that I can:
The old drawback I see to this (so far) is the inability to access my archived maildirs from my webmail client.
http://www.theatrain.net/pantherimaps.html
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20040607093759160