OfflineIMAP is a tool to simplify your e-mail reading. With OfflineIMAP, you can:

* Read the same mailbox from multiple computers, and have your
changes (deletions, etc.) be automatically reflected on
all computers
* Use various mail clients to read a single mail box
* Read mail while offline (on a laptop) and have all changes
synchronized when you get connected again
* Read IMAP mail with mail readers that do not support IMAP
* Use SSL (secure connections) to read IMAP mail even if your reader
doesn't support SSL
* Synchronize your mail using a completely safe and fault-tolerant
algorithm.
* Customize which mailboxes to synchronize with regular expressions
or lists.
* Synchronize your mail two to four times faster than with other tools
or other mail readers' internal IMAP support.
In short, OfflineIMAP is a tool to let you read mail how YOU want to.