Do you still get webmail access? What is the behavior? I know that webmail access would still be important. Really, I want IMAP at hotmail, but I think there are setting that make POP more bearable. Any tips welcomed.

Yes, you still have web access. If you want IMAP, follow my advice above about using Gmail.

Gmail will use the POP3 access to retrieve all your hotmail on a regular basis, so it will always be up to date, and you will then be able to take advantage of Gmail's IMAP support.

You can even set Gmail up to send email using your hotmail address, so that everything looks the same to everyone else.

What POP3 settings do you use for Mail.app and Gmail? Do you leave mail on server? When does it get deleted? If you don't leave them on server, does that removed them from the hotmail webmail interface? Knowing that Gmail is an option too, I'm wondering what the closest POP3 settings are for IMAP-like behavior on Hotmail.