> Sorry for the waste of b/w, but I cannot find an up-to-date FAQ regarding
> available MLM software. I am looking for a starting point to go and review
> current and *maintained* (free) software.
Hrm. This is from memory and trying to be unbiased. Please, anyone on the
list, don't take misinformation personally, just post a correction. :)
MAJORDOMO 1.x
Written in Perl, Majordomo is in many ways the 'de-facto' standard, simply
because it has a huge install-base. Majordomo does, however, have some
usability issues; changing between normal and digest modes is an absolute
nightmare on invite-only lists, and many features considered 'standard' on
other mailing list packages are missing in Majordomo due to age.
MAJORDOMO 2.x
Written in Perl and not yet released widely, Mj2 is much more powerful. It
allows an amazing amount of per-user and per-list configuration control. I
have never played with Mj2, but I understand it's a vast improvement over
the original. :)
LISTSERV
Written in C, sold commercially, and not available as source code, LISTSERV
is the one that started everything. It has some really nice features, such
as an integrated posting database that works over e-mail, so you can give
commands to get all the posts by <user> between <date> and <date>, or
similar things. It can also be a bit hard to understand for people used to
Majordomo-type packages, though, and it likes to run with its own SMTP
server and support software.
LISTPROC 6.x
Written in C and much like Listserv in interface and operation, Listproc 6
is no longer maintained.
LISTPROC 7+
Written in C. It went commercial, and I have no idea what Listproc 7 and up
are like.
PETIDOMO
Written in C, I think. I've never run across a list running Petidomo, so I
know nothing of it.
EZMLM
Integrated with qmail. A very powerful package in terms of allowing system
users to set up their own mailing lists and using VERP to determine bounces,
but it's closely tied to the qmail MTA.
LYRIS
Written in C, sold commerically, I don't believe source code is available
here either. Haven't played with it much. :)
SYMPA
Written in Perl, Sympa's main strength is that it's amazingly easy to
localize into other languages.
MAILMAN
Written in Python, Mailman has a web-centric administration and user
interface, and has an integrated archiving solution. It's under very active
development, and is apparently approaching another big rewrite/redesign to
pick up performance and features.
LISTAR
Written in C, Listar is designed around a modular architecture - modules can
add new commands, new code for other modules to call, new processing hooks,
new user mode flags, etc. Listar is under active development and is right
on the verge of a major rewrite to pick up more powerful/friendly MIME
handling and abstracted database support as well as some new
delivery-management features... but the rewrite has been delayed while a
legal situation over names gets resolved.
That's all I can think of offhand.
--Rachel
