- Server side address book. Yes, I know, ldap is solution, but installing and configuring the ldap server for some simple global address book, is kind of overkill.
LDAP isn't that hard to set up and it is pretty much globally supported, so trying to shoehorn this into IMAP is not a great idea.
There is another method, that stores all your contacts in 'vcard' like form, in an IMAP folder. It's how the Kolab stuff works, and there is a plugin for Thunderbird, that allows thunderbird to sync with it. When I get it working, I'm going to look at how easy it is to use the vcard format (compared to the XML Kolab format) from any client, and just browse the 'emails' making up my address book.
There seem to be lots of solutions to this problem, including LDAP, SQL, and even web services specifically for keeping your address book no matter where you are. Personally, there needs to be a standard, and seeing as your emails, and filters are now kept on the server, it would be nice if IMAP had some sort of standard for address books as well.
Tim
-- Linux Counter user #273956