[Mailman-Users] Question about Mailman domain and OS X serverset-up.

[Brad Knowles]

Sorry, my wife's computer has been down for days, and in the meanwhile she as taken over mine. At this point, all I've got is an iPad and a semi-wonky server in the closet, and neither of them is well suited for keeping up with lots of email. I'll fix that when I get her computer repaired and back into her hands so that I can get my computer back, but until then I'm going to be even more of an absentee admin for this list than normal.

I may actually be getting a job soon doing Enterprise Mac OS X consulting, and if I do then I will let you folks know. If that happens, then I could potentially be available to do remote consulting for this kind of stuff through my employer.

-- 
Brad Knowles
Sent from my iPad

On Apr 3, 2011, at 1:42 AM, JRC Groups <joemailgroups at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks Brad and Mark for your helpful and detailed replies.
> 
> I have reached a point where I have the lists almost working but there are
> some issues still preventing the systems from functioning in a way that
> allows me to confident to launch these lists I wish to create.
> 
> Apple's support has been MIA at best so I have given up and decided to seek
> other alternatives. Also, the numerous individuals I have spoken with at
> Apple were clearly (1) not interested in making any improvements or fixing
> the current issues with the version of Mailman that ships with OS X Server
> and (2) didn't know any more about it than I do (which is quite embarrassing
> considering they are part of the company's business support department).
> 
> I can't imagine that there is anything other than some minor set-up issues
> that need to be corrected with my system. After all, I am sending and
> receiving e-mails and the lists are functional (to an extent anyway) as they
> send and receive messages. However, as I stated above, I don't want to
> launch the lists only to attract subscribers and then find out in a short
> while that Mailman has stopped working because something with my system
> wasn't set-up properly.
> 
> I also can't imagine that it would be too difficult to install a new version
> of Mailman and manage it using its browser-based interface while ignoring
> Apple's System Administrator tool for this specific task.
> 
> Brad, since you have this much experience with OS X Server would you be
> interested in helping me with my problem ? In case you are, please contact
> me off-list so that we can discuss it. I believe you should be able to
> connect remotely, right ? In case you are not interested, would you
> recommend me someone who is knowledgeable on both OS X Server and Mailman ?
> I have contacted numerous Apple consultants but couldn't find a single one
> who had any experience with Mailman.
> 
> Thanks again for your helpful replies.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Joe
> 
> ---------------
> 
> On 3/30/11 5:36 PM, "Brad Knowles" <brad at shub-internet.org> wrote:
> 
>> On Mar 30, 2011, at 6:15 PM, JRC Groups wrote:
>> 
>>> Is there anyone on the list who is familiar with both OS X Server and
>>> Mailman to help with this problem ? I am willing to pay a consultation fee
>>> to someone who can connect to my server remotely and help solve this issue.
>> 
>> I've been an Apple consultant, at least part-time.  I came within a hairs
>> breadth of doing that job full-time for a local Apple VAR.  I've got all the
>> PDF versions of all the official Apple documentation on Mac OS X and Mac OS X
>> Server, as well as PDF versions of the good 3rd party books on the subject.
>> And I've been a professional Unix system administrator and consultant for over
>> twenty years.
>> 
>> The guy who used to run lists.apple.com was involved in the development and
>> support of Mailman long before I came along, and has more experience in the
>> business than I do.
>> 
>> I don't mean to sound pessimistic or to rain on your parade, but in both
>> cases, the solution was to blow away the stuff that Apple ships, and to
>> install the "real deal" code as downloaded from list.org.
>> 
>> 
>> The Mailman project is freely available open source (under a GNU license, no
>> less), and the support we provide is best effort.  There is no commercial
>> version of Mailman that we sell or officially support.  Anyone else that
>> includes Mailman as part of a commercial product or service that they sell,
>> should include with that a full after-sales support staff.
>> 
>> 
>> Note that there isn't going to be a separate "Server" edition of Mac OS X
>> "Lion".
>> 
>> No one seems to know if this means that all the stuff that the "Server"
>> edition used to include will now be available to everyone, and that all the
>> people who developed the "Server" edition of Mac OS X have been transitioned
>> over to the mainline code development team, or if that means that a lot of
>> products and services will get thrown out the door as Apple re-focuses
>> exclusively on the retail/home user market.
>> 
>> But that is certainly something that you should keep in mind as you look
>> towards solutions in this space.
>> 
>> --
>> Brad Knowles <brad at shub-internet.org>
>> LinkedIn Profile: <http://tinyurl.com/y8kpxu>
>> 
> 
>