I've found myself using console applications more and more recently. The only GUI applications I use out of necessity are Firefox, Keepass and VirtualBox. I use the console for everything else: Cmus for music, Newsbeuter for news feeds and podcasts, TaskWarrior for to-do management, Vim for coding, etc. The Ratpoison window manager helps me make the most of screen space and allows me to manage my windows with keyboard commands like GNU Screen.
Unfortunately, I've never found an email client I liked, whether console or GUI, so I just stick to Fastmail's web interface.
That's me right here. I love Ratpoison, although I think Evilwm is really good as well.
I never liked e-mail in Unix, as I feel the whole MUA/MTA thing is too complicated, so I stick with Gmail (which I backup with Fetchmail to a mbox file).
There's a problem with that, though: fetchmail won't notice state changes in your mailbox — like, whether an email is read or not, whether you've replied, forwarded it already, etc.
That's why I came to despise the MUA/MTA schism of Unix so much: If I reply to an email on my laptop, I won't know it on my desktop. The only solution is to have a central server you can ssh into. Clunky solution at best.
Solution: use Mutt's semi-new IMAP interface. Nothing is stored locally, and I can see whether I've replied to emails, and I can delete/move emails regardless of the computer I'm currently on.
VirtualBox does have a command line interface. You can start up headless images and such pretty easily. You could even start images with a VNC server, and control the machine from your browser. One less visual tool.
Oh, I should clarify, I don't use it as a server or anything like that. I have VirtualBox and a Windows XP image for any University work that requires Windows software. Right now that's, reluctantly, Microsoft Visual Studio.
Unfortunately, I've never found an email client I liked, whether console or GUI, so I just stick to Fastmail's web interface.