[Mailman-Users] Can mailman preprocess mails before doing the usualstuff?

[Simon White]

13-Dec-03 at 15:51, = Michael Aivaliotis = (michael at mmwis.com) wrote :
> Also, if Mailman had the capabilities you describe then it would
> actually be a very powerful application. Too powerful to remain
> open-source and free.  Look at what's heppening to MySQL. You add
> power then you ask for money. So, more features and capabilities mean
> more resources dedicated to development which requires financial
> backing. No-one is going to put money into something and not get
> anything in return...

I don't think that is how the open source model actually works.

The Linux kernel, the GNU compiler and C/C++ library set, a number of
very useful MTAs, graphical applications, heck all the building blocks
of the Internet are powerful and have Open Source equivalents that are
mostly more powerful than commercial alternatives. 

MySQL is _still_ available for free. You pay for support, and the fact
is that this support is needed when you're running a massive database
and certainly if you don't really know what you're doing when you've got
to tune for massive query hogging apps. Proper DB admin is hardcore,
when you've got lots of concurrency, bottlenecks all over the place, and
massive data sets.

Do not confuse free (as in speech) and free (as in beer). GNU and Open
Source tend to be the former, not the latter. Nobody says you can't have
applications for free if you know what you're doing. But then asking for
help and expecting it for free too... that's like walking into a bar and
asking someone you don't know to buy you a drink. If, however, you
provide something to people in the bar (to cut an analogy) like playing
a bit on an old piano in the corner and cheering everyone up, you might
find drinks do indeed get bought for you. But if you ain't a pianist,
sometimes you got to get your wallet out.

Cheers,

-- 
Simon White. Internet Consultant, Linux/Windows Server Administration.
email, dns and web servers; php javascript perl asp; MySQL MSSQL Access
     Bridging the gap between management, HR and the tech team.