D. J. Bernstein writes:
> I've set up a web page to combat Sendmail Inc.'s false advertising on
> this topic: http://cr.yp.to/surveys/sendmail.html
>
> Sendmail dropped below 50% of the Internet's SMTP servers---including
> idle workstations---last year; qmail has climbed past 10%. I suspect
> that qmail now handles more Internet mail deliveries than Sendmail does,
> although I don't know a good way to measure this.
The problem is getting the random sample. You can't just count
servers, you have to count traffic. And when you start to do that, it
becomes quite difficult to come up with a good random sample. Best I
can think of is to do what the FBI does: arrange with some Internet
provider to put a traffic analyzer somewhere on their backbone, and
sniff for SMTP sessions. Check the MTA's on both ends and give each
credit for handling an Internet mail delivery.
You could examine a set of log files, but then how do you count them?
You can't count the MTA that sent and received the email because it's
completely non-random. And yet, that throws off your statistics.
I could, for example, get you the log files for Rediff.com. They're
an Indian portal that probably handles 50% of all email in and out of
India. From the smtpd and qmail log files you could contact each
sending and receiving site. You could identify the MTA, and count
that as "an Internet mail delivery".
But that sample would be weighted towards personal email, and away
from workplace email. That makes it much less random.
I could also get you the log files for two ISPs that send daily mail
to all of their customers. But that weights the sample towards
people interested in that kind of mail.
--
-russ nelson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://russnelson.com | Government is the
Crynwr sells support for free software | PGPok | fictitious entity by which
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