Any suggestion for mailing list mail server

[kentborg-KwkGvOEf1og at public.gmane.org (Kent Borg)]

Dave Peters a wrote:
> Any suggestion for mailing list Mail Server? Sendmail, Postfix or Qmail?
>   

I used to use qmail but gave up because it wasn't really maintained. The
author is at odds with the world, he wants our whole e-mail system
redesigned from scratch (he has a point) and in the meantime he will fix
any security bug but otherwise isn't so interested in evolving qmail to
match reality. It he will not allow anyone to release any version but
his exact sources--which means anyone else's code changes have to be
applied as a source patch and you recompile; your distribution can't do
a nice value-add. Oh, and the qmail mailing list is grumpy with lots of
RTFM responses to questions.

I didn't go to sendmail because of its bad security history. Yes, it got
a big rewrite a couple years back and is reported to be much better, but
the basic design was not crafted with security in mind.

So I chose postfix. It has been good. I set up spamassassin in a
slightly odd way that I wish I had done differently, but Postfix seems nice.

Extra consideration: I am using dovecot for an IMAP server and I haven't
taken the time to make spamassassin and postfix and dovecot all work
together to sort suspected spam into a different junk mailbox for each
user. It probably isn't that hard, but I can't say I have done it.

> I am not sure which one that I should use. The performance is most important for me and if it can send 6-7 emails per second.
>   

I am quite sure any of the above could keep up with 6-7 e-mails a
second; configure the software to allow enough concurrent attempts, much
of the time will be waiting for the network and remote machine, but on
average you will keep up fine...

6-7 a second? Sustained? (Are you a spammer?) Even if you are not a
spammer, it is tricky to not be identified as one. Recently AOL started
blocking me again (in my backscatter days it made sense), they say they
have removed the block, but I don't know why they did it this time. At
least one other recent address I sent e-mail to got a bounce from gmail
(I didn't know I was sending to gmail with that address) and is unclear
what the problem is, a test e-mail to myself at gmail didn't bounce...

Running ones own e-mail server is not for the faint-of-heart. Even if
you get everything humming nicely the changing landscape as spammers
innovate can break you.

-kb