Mercurial > docs > diploma

comparison thesis/tex/1-Introduction.tex @ 408:ee7211546c02 final version which I handed in

Find changesets by keywords (author, files, the commit message), revision number or hash, or revset expression.
added paragraph about hikernet; fixed some bib entries
author meillo@marmaro.de
date Mon, 09 Feb 2009 00:37:52 +0100
parents 4b151c1b3835
children
comparison
equal deleted inserted replaced
407:4b151c1b3835 408:ee7211546c02
389 \index{isp} 389 \index{isp}
390 \index{sendmail} 390 \index{sendmail}
391 \index{masqmail!on notebooks} 391 \index{masqmail!on notebooks}
392 392
393 393
394 %fixme: hikernet 394 \masqmail\ is also used in a scientific project: \person{Wolfgang Leister} chose \masqmail\ for the prototype implementation of the \name{HikerNet} \cite{leister04}. The \name{HikerNet} is an ad-hoc network for peer-to-peer communication in otherwise network-less areas. Unfortunately, the usage of \masqmail\ for the prototype is not documented. The author of this thesis received the information in private email communication with \person{Leister} in October 2008. \person{Leister} stated, he chose \masqmail\ as email-to-hikernet gateway because it was well suited and easy to set up for this particular usage. Other \MTA{}s would have been possible choices, but it was easier with \masqmail.
395 << hikernet >> 395 \index{HikerNet}
396 \index{gateway}
396 397
397 398
398 Although the development of \masqmail\ has been stopped in 2003, \masqmail\ still has its users. Having users is already reason enough for further development and maintenance. This applies especially when the software covers a niche and when requirements for such software in general changed. Both is the case for \masqmail. 399 Although the development of \masqmail\ has been stopped in 2003, \masqmail\ still has its users. Having users is already reason enough for further development and maintenance. This applies especially when the software covers a niche and when requirements for such software in general changed. Both is the case for \masqmail.
399 400
400 It is difficult to get numbers about users of Free Software because no one needs to tell anyone when he uses some software. \name{Debian}'s \name{popcon} statistics \citeweb{popcon.debian} are a try to provided numbers. For January 2009, the statistics report 60 \masqmail\ installations of which 49 are in active use. If it is assumed that one third of all \name{Debian} users report their installed software\footnote{One third is a high guess as it means there would be only about 230 thousand \name{Debian} installations in total. But according to the \name{Linux Counter} \citeweb{counter.li.org} between 490 thousand and 12 million \name{Debian} users can be estimated.}, there would be in total around 150 active \masqmail\ installations in \name{Debian}. \name{Ubuntu} which also does \name{popcon} statistics \citeweb{popcon.ubuntu}, counts 82 installations with 13 active ones. If here also one third of all systems submit their data, 40 active installations can be added. Including a guessed amount of additional 30 installations on other Unix operating systems makes about 220 \masqmail\ installations in total. Of course one person may have \masqmail\ installed on more than one computer, but a total of 150 different users seems to be realistic. 401 It is difficult to get numbers about users of Free Software because no one needs to tell anyone when he uses some software. \name{Debian}'s \name{popcon} statistics \citeweb{popcon.debian} are a try to provided numbers. For January 2009, the statistics report 60 \masqmail\ installations of which 49 are in active use. If it is assumed that one third of all \name{Debian} users report their installed software\footnote{One third is a high guess as it means there would be only about 230 thousand \name{Debian} installations in total. But according to the \name{Linux Counter} \citeweb{counter.li.org} between 490 thousand and 12 million \name{Debian} users can be estimated.}, there would be in total around 150 active \masqmail\ installations in \name{Debian}. \name{Ubuntu} which also does \name{popcon} statistics \citeweb{popcon.ubuntu}, counts 82 installations with 13 active ones. If here also one third of all systems submit their data, 40 active installations can be added. Including a guessed amount of additional 30 installations on other Unix operating systems makes about 220 \masqmail\ installations in total. Of course one person may have \masqmail\ installed on more than one computer, but a total of 150 different users seems to be realistic.