I am currently running Debian Etch on a Gateway 7330GZ laptop. I am migrating away from Windows and want to move my e-mail onto my Debian machine. On my windows machine, I am running Thunderbird 2.0.0.14 and enigmail for GPG integration.

My questions are as follows; are there any real problems with IceDove? I keep reading posts where people are not happy with it, but from what I have read, it is Thunderbird with a new label. I have also read where I can purge IceDove and install Thunderbird, but then it won't be maintained by Debian. Second, will enigmail install on IceDove the same way it does with Thunderbird? I use GPG and cannot afford to lose that function. Finally, can I backup my e-mail on my windows machine with MozBackup and import it into IceDove?

Thanks for any help. I cannot afford to lose my e-mail as I use it for work, but I want to get it migrated in the next day or so before I take my laptop on a road trip.

Regarding - enigmail for GPG integration - possible why not
and regarding the mails. just copy the local folder files into your linux box or use the tool mozbackup. I've got also a windows client with thunderbird and a debian client with icedove.
The both use a folder on a network share. So both clients have got the same mails ;-) I've just copied once the content of the windows thunderbird on that network share.

I don't guarantee your success, but I use it exclusively and successfully. Enigmail attaches itself to Icedove transparently.

To the best of my ability to understand the situation, people who complain about Iceweasel or Icedove not working as well as the Mozilla products, are simply incompetent bozos. They are the same product with "free" labeling.

I will say this. Only Icedove 1.5 is available for Etch. Installing version 2.0 may bring in some supporting libraries that mean you won't have Etch any more. Of course if you may be able to build it from source.

Great, thanks for the replies. I thought that there wasn't any difference based off what I read on the Debian site, but I wanted to make sure. And thanks for the note about using a single network folder for both clients. As soon as I get back, I am implementing that, too cool.