Fedora :: Downloading Mail From Gmail Or Hotmail To 13

I have a lot of emails on hotmail and gmail that I want to store in text or html files on my local Fedora computer for future reference. Is there a way I can download them to my hard drive without doing it one email at a time with the browser's Save Page As feature or some such thing? There has to (?) be a better way.

Every mail program should have an easy-to-use 'mass' export-to-text-file feature so that people are not held hostage to a particular email service or program. The lack of such a feature in email programs I've used is one of my pet peeves. It seems rather tyrannical and abusive. (Now before someone tells me it's a free service, please remember all the advertisements I have to go through to use the service). I do not have an email account through an ISP. I live with my landlord who deals with the ISP. I only use hotmail and gmail (and, rarely, yahoo).