I'm about to implement a SpamAssassin setup for nearly one hundred users, I'll be using Amavis-new, and so can't have Bayes per user.... should I avoid Bayes all together?
No... Bayes performs better when it's per user.. that doesn't mean that multiple-users on a single bayes DB doesn't work.
I don't quite understand why there's this massive misconception that you shouldn't do multi-user bayes databases... Tons of setups do it, mine included. MailScanner setups do this _by default_.
The difference between per-user and multi-user bayes depends a lot on how different a typical user's email is from one another..
If you're a business, most of your email will be related to the market your company works in. Sure the Purchasing, accounting, engineering and marketing folks will have different focuses in their email, but they'll also have a lot in common, as they'll all be getting a lot of market-specific terminology in their email.
On an "isp" type scenario the impact of multi-user bayes gets a heavier hit to it's effectiveness, but it's still generally better than not having bayes.
Any suggestions for an optimum configuration for an installation without using Bayes...
Make sure you have network tools. Net::DNS perl module (for DNSBLs) DCC and/or razor
And you might want to load some of the custom rulesets like popcorn, backhair, weeds, etc.
how successful with SpamAssassin be without Bayes...?
It works, but gets more dependant on DNSBLs and razor-esq systems for help.
