I have heard alot of this in IRC recently, and personally I dont care much for kde, but I do sometimes use certain packages like KDM, Kate, and Kmail from kde.. I guess the kde-network package has been removed for whatever reason, I dont see how that would stop you from grabbing kmail though. Try: apt-get install kmail see what happens. and just keep in mind that the world doesnt end at kde.. there is a whole gnu world outside kde.