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Mailing List Managers?
greyrax asks: "So I'm trying to convince someone to go open source for their list manager. They're about to upgrade to an expensive proprietary solution.
With about 400,000 subscribers to this newsletter, a database back-end would certainly be helpful. Bounced address management and easy unsubscribes is important (I've read Smartmail vs. MailMan comparison here). Virtual host support and a web interface are desirable. Any thoughts from the /.ers since this thread last year would be appreciated."
one thing i hate is having to "e-mail with subject \"help\" to receive a list of possible commands", each of which, I gather, includes sending an e-mail with a certain subject, then receiving an e-mail in confirmation of it. Blech!
Whatever you use, make sure it has a clean web interface, and configure it to include a link at the end of each e-mail sent to the group to the effect of "Click here to change or configure your mailing list membership."
Although the largest list I've ever served with Mailman was 116 members, I really think Mailman has potential to do what you want. It has all the features you mentioned, though the database backend isn't SQL and I'm assuming that is what you meant.
Beware, Nugget is watching... See?
And before anyone complains about the license of QMail/ezmlm, yes, that sucks. The license is a royal pain in the butt, as it doesn't allow direct distribution of modifications, only patches. It still works though, and works really well.
qmail does not have a license and does not need one:
http://cr.yp.to/softwarelaw.html
``What does all this mean for the free software world? Once you've legally downloaded a program, you can compile it. You can run it. You can modify it. You can distribute your patches for other people to use. If you think you need a license from the copyright holder, you've been bamboozled by Microsoft. As long as you're not distributing the software, you have nothing to worry about.''
One thing I hate is having to "log in with the plaintext password I store and mail you every month without fail to some random mailing list name to do anything because this MLM is too braindead to understand listname-requests, or even listname-(command)".
Whatever you use, make sure it has a clean email interface, and configure it to include rfc2369/rfc2919 List-(Subscribe|Unsubscribe|Post|Help|Owner|Id) headers so I can filter and automate control of it.
Ecartis is a great example of a MLM with support for both email and web-based manglement. Email is the standard double-opt-(in|out) stuff, with various other methods of authentication to make sending batched/automated commands easy for admins. Web emails you a "cookie" (effectively a temporary password), and lets you set up a (secure) password once logged in; if you forget your password, you just don't include it on login and get another cookie.
No monthly spam with one of your passwords going out for all to see to some random location in your filters (mine end up in lists/(test|news|announcements)), and an extensive but by no means required web interface, without the need for a monthly insecure irritating to filter spam.
So what is http://cr.yp.to/qmail/dist.html then?
That refrence you give talks about licenses with regards to restricting rights of a consumer - basically, shrink wrap licenses that limit (perhaps illegally) my ability to resell a product or modify it for my means. That's wrong. However, even though I may have the right to resell my copy of Windows XP Retail, I don't have the right to make 100 copies and sell them.
Qmail, along with DJBDNS (and a lot of other DJB's software) has a copyright that restricts distribution of modified binaries. Which means, if DJB get's hit by a truck tomarrow and dies, Qmail's developement is legally frozen.
Please don't be obtuse. The legal meaning is as you say, of course. But the common meaning is, "the terms under which the program is available." In the common sense, qmail has a license. And the OP is right, it's a pain.
DJB's insistence on keeping an iron grip on qmail and keeping it at v1.0 for five years is what made me finally change over to Postfix. It's in the same league as qmail regarding security, reliability, and having a good architecture. But unlike qmail, you don't have to apply patches to get needed features. And the configuration files are actually readable and helpful to admins.
Three months after conversion, my only regret is that I didn't switch from qmail to Postfix sooner.
Probably more of a solution than you need, but it's a very good way to take a generic boxen and quickly turn it into a slam-dunk mail server and listserver.
The guy who developed it (Matt Simerson) is uber-conscious of security issues and a helluva nice guy to boot; he's put together an exceptionally tight package from a security standpoint. If nothing else, you may want to look at what he's got and do a modified or stripped-down install.
"It was a summer's tale: Just a boy, his Linux, and a head full of dreams..."