Re: Changing the default for `send-mail-function'

[chad <yandros@MIT.EDU>]

On Jul 6, 2011, at 5:34 PM, Richard Stallman wrote:

>      I wouldn't be surprised if the gnu.org
>    login servers were in the top 100 by usage of such machines in the
>    world.
> 
> If it is useful for the FSF, it is probably useful for many other
> organizations.

I can think of very few organizations that have both the FSF's focus
on computing use and our lack of resources.

> You consider this kind of system a "niche legacy", so you will tend
> not to notice them, but that doesn't mean they are few in number.

That is certainly possible.  What I was trying to convey is simply this:
Such systems used to be common, but are far less so now.  A little
exploration tells me that at least a few tens of thousands of users of
such systems *to my direct knowledge* have moved entirely away 
from that model.  At this point, I am aware of more people that no
longer use such systems than use emacs at all.  Of course, my
personal awareness is a poor over-all metric.

> Each one has many users, and its sysadmins may not be Emacs users.

Indeed, which is why I was trying to suggest that we should simply try 
your experiment and see how it works.

I assume that you replied because you took umbrage at the phrase
`rare edge case'.  I meant no offense; covering edge cases is a 
valiant and necessary part of good software engineering. I replied
in detail because I thought that it might be helpful, since you so
famously ``appear to be well outside the solar system''.

Thanks,
*Chad