>>as an enterprise system is that finding things like RDJ and >>SARE are not easy, while commercial solutions put everything >>in one box. " >So....well......there you have it.
Chris, et al- As a new user to both Linux and Spamassassin (since April) I honestly have to agree with this guy. Remember, the vast majority of people looking at SA are coming from a "put in disk and type d:\setup.exe" attitude. While I myself came from a little less hand-holding than Microsoft (Novell) I still found it a bit confusing as to how to do it and what to do next. Hell, if it wasn't for this very mailing list, I'd still be running SpamAssassin bare-back, and I'd never have known about things like SARE and RDJ. And, if I had stumbled across RDJ, for instance, I'd never know that BigEvil was about to become very evil...<grin>. What I'm really trying to say is no where is there really a hand-holding document that says, "here's what you have to do if you really want this to work well." What you get on the SA web page is SA "supports" this and "make use of other anti-spam projects" such as SARE and RDJ. No where does it say outright "SpamAssassin works really well, however you will be probably be unhappy with its performance unless you also use SARE, and the reason for that is the rules change constantly." It seems obvious to you and me, but think about what Joe Admin is going through when the CEO slams down an edict to "stop the spam." The commercial releases, however, do go that extra mile and provide all of this in one big happy package so that the end user doesn't have to do any homework (or thinking). Bottom line: your peer base is changing rapidly. No longer are you a group of select "tech weenies" (so to speak) that understand what a command line is and that compiling is not gathering grass clippings and food garbage in a pile in the backyard. As you exist now you are the leadership of a group of uninformed admins that are getting wind of your theology. That, unfortunately, is a downside to becoming popular: the user base intellectual mean drops. Personally, I am delighted with the learning experience of SA and this list over the last 3-4 months. If I had been spoon-fed all this I would not understand and be able to tweak the process, and I'd be simply a victim wondering what's going on. Further, my knowledge has now become extremely valuable to my organization. However, I suspect I'm in the minority of the people you (we) are going to see coming into this solution going forward. I am working on an internal white paper that documents everything I've done to date, mostly for my own edification. However, I will be using it as a basis for a presentation at the 2005 BrainShare on spam filtering using SuSE, SA, and all the other good stuff; I may even consider producing a public document that details my experiences and make it much easier for those that follow (and less frustrating for you guys!) Keep up the good work. Greg Amy Hartford (CT) Hospital
