For what it's worth, the University of Washington has a six-digit user
community for its IMAP service, and many of these users thousands if not
tens of thousands of messages in their mailboxes.
I am curious why you feel that it "doesn't seem scalable". For each IMAP
user, what is needed is:
. a user ID
. a password
. a designated directory to store mailboxes (don't forget, there is more
than just INBOX)
. access control precluding unauthorized access to other user's
mailboxes, and perhaps also sharing access.
All this is precisely what a UNIX account provides; and it does so with
familiar tools that you already know how to use. There is no "overhead"
with a UNIX account that you don't already have to face with IMAP.
Without using a UNIX account, you need to have a database of each user
with user ID, password, the user's directory (perhaps this can be
calculated), and above all access control rules (particularly if shared
access is permitted). The main reason for doing this is NOT to save
"overhead" over a UNIX account, but rather to do things that UNIX accounts
don't do (in particular, provide much more complex access control than
UNIX allows).
There are excellent servers (notably Cyrus from CMU) which work precisely
that way. If you feel that this is what you want, then consider Cyrus:
http://cyrusimap.web.cmu.edu/
UW imapd is not targeted at that type of audience; Cyrus is. However, the
UW and Cyrus folks work closely, so if you are really a Cyrus kind of guy
then I'm happy to refer you to them.
Good luck!
-- Mark --
http://staff.washington.edu/mrc
Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.
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