Russ Allbery wrote:
Keith Moore <moore(_at_)cs(_dot_)utk(_dot_)edu> writes:
It might be the case that only a small percentage of users participate
in email lists. It might also be the case that mutt is favored by a
fairly narrow class of users who happen to participate on lots of email
lists. But I don't believe it's reasonable to conclude that a
significant percentage of people who participate in email lists use
mutt.
Well, statistics have been presented showing that that's the case for one
pretty broad but mostly technical selection of mailing lists. What
statistics do you have to support the alternative position? You may well
be correct, but I'd really like to see this argued from the vantage point
of firm evidence.
I don't see "fairly sophisticated users who are on a lot of mailing
lists" as the primary audience for this sort of feature. (where "this
sort of feature" is a general improvement in how replies are handled and
not something that is specific to lists) I see the audience as "users
who use email for more than just occasional personal correspondence".
I'm skeptical, but it would be nice. I think that even among that
audience, you'll find a larger number of mutt users than you seem to be
expecting.
I have examined 1,516 messages which are a collection of messages
posted to several related announce-only lists plus messages exchanged
by individuals participating in group discussions over a period of
several years w/o a mailing list. These are members of an engineering
professional society unrelated to Internet mail (http://www.smpte.org).
One issues is that not all mailers advertise themselves. Some that do
so use unusual places (e.g. Pine uses the Message-ID field). Among
others, identification may be found in X-Mailer, X-MIMEOLE, User-Agent,
or in one isolated case X-Newsreader fields. Because Message-ID fields
were examined (to find Pine users), there is some remaining cruft.
Messages which could not be attributed to any MUA are grouped together
in a line marked "indeterminate":
487 Mozilla
237 Internet Mail Service
188 Outlook
120 AT&T Message Center
102 AOL
90 Eudora
67 indeterminate
45 Lotus Notes Release
35 Outlook Express
26 fc
23 Exchange
20 Novell GroupWise Internet Agent
16 Apple Mail
9 Thunderbird
7 Atlas Mailer
6 Entourage
5 Roving Constant Contact
3 Springmail
2 iPlanet Messenger Express
2 Juno
1 test
1 Unknown
1 OFAAA5FA
1 OF85256C
1 OF6C324AB
1 OF5F926BEC
1 OF3AD9CEB
1 Internet Messaging Program
1 GoldMine
1 F449LvuKebm4M2S0gUF00000d0b
1 F42naoBe27dE3Jhv8KT000106ee
1 F1887LRZY0qVSX2SAEh00010ecf
1 EMUmail
1 E187KAc-0005Hg
1 E17tyFv-0006mU
1 E17sTLF-0001Ty
1 E17g6wV-0007EN
1 E17fb2S-0000do
1 E17fYh0-0004Ps
1 Bloomba Professional Edition
1 7b30e568868c41b584f7cf322ae3a8d
1 27585ED8A8DCD2118956009027468902BCFF4B
1 27585ED8A8DCD2118956009027468902BCFF3A
1 27585ED8A8DCD2118956009027468902BCFF
1 27585ED8A8DCD2118956009027468902BCFE2C
1 0I2C00803WCA0Y
Unsurprisingly, mutt isn't even on the list (nor are other character-based-UI
UAs such as Pine and ELM). The ones identified as "fc" all came from
Message-ID fields and originated at PBS stations; probably an artifact of
whatever MSA/MTA generated Message-IDs. Many of the one-offs are a
result of Message-IDs. Microsoft's products (Outlook, Outlook Express,
Internet Mail Service, Exchange, Entourage) dominate, followed fairly
closely by Mozilla/Thunderbird, with others all fairly far behind.
The same type of analysis of 2,538 recent messages to this mailing list
results in:
506 Mozilla
296 indeterminate
225 Sylpheed
220 NN
204 Gnus
122 Apple Mail
117 Eudora
107 Mutt
89 Pine
60 The Bat
41 Outlook Express
32 Mulberry
31 OpenXP
30 Outlook
28 MimeOLE
28 KMail
27 CrossPoint
14 BatIMail
10 Lotus Notes
9 exmh
9 dtmail
9 Id
8 Ximian Evolution
8 Opera
8 MR
8 Exchange
6 Forte Agent
5 Z-Mail
4 PocoMail
4 Internet Mail Service
3 mh-e
3 SquirrelMail
3 MH-E
3 Eudora Light
3 ELM
2 iqHT6v6wOkZrfnWa4MgHcQ
2 VM
2 Mailsmith
2 Danger Service
2 CMM
2 AuvUFTP2Z9Wrz0jrlxdO6Q
2 01L5QIC3JDLW00Q4RU
2 01L5QEZ7OYU400Q4RU
2 01L5JEZZ5EYS00Q4RU
2 01L5IFYRHAMK00Q4RU
1 zwZ0W6ZvC
1 zn9LchILJcKiJfYJ9kyQ8A
1 z3J6mXZgOKuHdLmvWl5zQw
1 xqRenBEr5R5kjjJ6Xlpwgw
1 xaSGldTLm7iOF8wLX6jSrQ
1 wl0Ru3aMoZ4VmGhmNd1PTg
1 vyDCOksjW0T5JTUD+zj
1 vblVCzk7yuOTmh4aNJKFdQ
1 uUJgMT7Ciu7lztcHxy0FZg
1 tDL298uKO7MOehILJ2WeWw
1 tC4hDQnOAEZqtwQUHxZseQ
1 t5P6YRORQ6bwogKYdWq1ww
1 sybUXrBvSS0e5J5fjwan1Q
1 sn21AhOGvpBfnU55O7Wumg
1 prYqvhAU+WKtGdjb
1 p06110437bd3d5d396de
1 p06110411bd46993ab
1 p06110410bd7887b449c
1 p0611040fbd492cde8b
1 p0611040bbd4902ddb2d
1 p0611040abd461846772d
1 p06110409bd4614b6a
1 p06110406bd5ca1d404a
1 p06110404bd5f11d52c
1 p06110404bd5dea7e8c
1 p06110401bd62d06b426d
1 p0601020abc2d73526fd
1 p06002021bbc4cab
1 p05200f24bb99cdacaabd
1 p05200f23bb99ccf980ea
1 p05200f22bb99caff09fa
1 p05200f14bb9bec7f080a
1 p05200f0cbb9b89b0d
1 p05200f0bbb9b88ab938c
1 p05200f0bba7680f98ef
1 p05200f09bb9b861df9f
1 p05200f07bb98c00f
1 p05200f03bb9ddd0137f
1 p05200f02bb9ddc3808c
1 p05200f02ba91409579cd
1 p05200f01bb9b7c55adb
1 p05200f00bb9b7a713c
1 p05200e26b9ecc4e303e
1 p05111a3fb9708269ae
1 p05111a1cb9748dae
1 p05111a0fb97a161e0af
1 p05111a0eb9745555510d
1 p05111a08b979f6759ee
1 p05111a08b971d9cc
1 p05111a02b979cba
1 p0510034cb98a750b5df
1 p0510033db98a5c7c98f
1 p0510032bb93684d40eb
1 p0510031fb971d00ea5e
1 p0510031db9c2ed7c528f
1 p05100311b9f9bca44bfb
1 p0510030bb9c72a08220a
1 p0510030ab9ed7c1226d
1 p0510030ab96db70d
1 p05100309b93a2c722d1a
1 p05100307b975886d19a
1 p05100306b9858ae26f9c
1 p05100305b9f5285a855b
1 p05100304b9f69017587e
1 p05100304b
1 p05100303b9c410f400cd
1 p05100303b937439f036f
1 p05100302b9ac8a2b6b4b
1 o7jrZVLZd6FgLOH44VcKrQ
1 neJF6+CS41jHaqMBlY5SAw
1 kkg5WVwiVSJhjO3CRwJ8sw
1 kJSYnkehT+XlAJhd+WFXPA
1 jcOawBbwmd+qp3X6vCA9wQ
1 iuBsACA1THJrX5vkWtdnZA
1 h7LVXOlDw
1 ggchXeRpHsSh
1 gPUjz2LmGSGnDDQZGeIDgg
1 fiZK7lbL8FGIdRDHCGmSEA
1 cLYarZs
1 aaU2nXcISyi2O16dFAa+dg
1 aFVEHUCz4vhfZ1BF7VB9wg
1 a06200a1abd
1 a06200a06bd5514cf
1 a06200a05bd5550ce801a
1 a06000806ba84764bf7eb
1 YvJ8mKdtbZCPoT3jwVyO0Q
1 X
1 VM6xUI48UlTorJXqxfy1iQ
1 VD0yJWnoH68BDsLtyBBkeg
1 UkgPy4n1Cl6ncox0Gr7wfQ
1 UhvnO6pBCBqf2qh75fWJew
1 Turnpike Integrated
1 SxZVVwZS5y7TrNpYc+pBjQ
1 Q9KgRc2Hz1Pk3+n+4RiKEw
1 PlW8RRS+4JmrXNTlASBtIQ
1 PSs936ZcbAPmNty5tLclmA
1 OpPGiAjsOuQ5zgojCvdmcQ
1 OIyLV7qntjxEzFT1Gw9qGQ
1 NA4Icnc
1 Mailsmith Prerelease
1 MailManager
1 MMail
1 MB5TXyMPE3DdvF8zxs0w+g
1 LlbzzgSu8AhS+pAGh2Dktw
1 JiOT9YrBJ2kP5pjbaHPDTQ
1 JX1fmb8yW8DwX79vDkXOvw
1 IGNkHlX2RIC5Gv0wgJUBGA
1 HuU1P1DxTyF2kH+Insj8JA
1 HnMsMI
1 HM
1 GrlVRieTpdev7dSqW1k+rw
1 GUkpu9mSQXLJX
1 GLMwTG0TieET8A6W53kYvg
1 Entourage
1 E7liF9C6446UclpAxR60Qg
1 E1A5Qly-0001uz
1 CnENpYZHSfF7oqj6x2nVFw
1 CXYZ9TunsF0hbc4nRxlidA
1 CXVLOi727rQudKFH0OpdNw
1 CLIE Mail
1 C2UXZ8HuE3NZm2zjleB8iA
1 BnOPM0iqOnFVUMgIRZ1qsA
1 B6knpGBu36fZBOwGqIW8fg
1 AhNFVsj9hZKsigvgZmJFog
1 906ByjdrGUtL9vQjTs+9KQ
1 8LEtQCmIAahbHMt36t1tHA
1 7WsUCIZ
1 6bMhvPKpbZIIEHDW6ayBrw
1 4NTjeJVT+0GxTVbd
1 3ShvKE7rMH8DudtVayqwig
1 3JZVXnN
1 1h57AkwLdShKkH1q1I30gw
1 1aYGbwWRQLpfd4amXcvyBg
1 02gN6yDPJv+bB4TG5baCjw
1 01LEEM2T5AT000005R
1 01LEAB1LVYC000005R
1 01LE5U6FDLGA00005R
1 01LE5OQV33N800005R
1 01LE5MCPBV8G00005R
1 01LE1VGVOAJM0087C
1 01LE1V57L3SM0087C
1 01LE1UZBL64A0087C
1 01LE1UW084320087C
1 01LDX31R23EG00005R
1 01LDTVI1ZMY000005R
1 01LDTS0X3IE200005R
1 01LDSZHJYST000005R
1 01LDSX361EOI00005R
1 01LDQ56NAXTQ00005R
1 01LDPF21Z0LQ00005R
1 01LDP8KE75V400005R
1 01LDMAZLZG9I0087C
1 01LDM3NWP1E000005R
1 01LDM27HCUCO00005R
1 01LDM23SDIVE00005R
1 01LD804Z1D2U0061HF
1 01LD1S0HX57M00005R
1 01LCN9SPG92Q00005R
1 01LCJ207ZH9E0061HF
1 01L5QF7VWKYQ00Q4RU
1 01L5PLEN33PK00Q4RU
1 01L5PGPQ2C4S00Q4RU
1 01L5P3KCJL9O00Q4RU
1 01L5O60KT45M00Q4RU
1 01L543ENSLVY00HOW
1 01L51B2QN2P200NZA
1 01L4Z0G3HR1W0134RS
1 01L34N7Q0VXM00HOW
1 01L33T4X9MMO00HOW
1 01L2PCC4JBE400HOW
1 01L2CXCUEAFE00Q4RU
1 01L1CIWCV8UK002O3W
1 01L1B5KHQCSS00AIOP
1 01L16WQ9CGGE00AIOP
1 01L16ELBAZKM00AIOP
1 01L16ALA0SA800AIOP
1 01L15JBKZI4600UICS
1 01L146MFQL3U00AIOP
1 01KXFX5UDAES00D1EZ
1 01KWXELT5VCQ00D1EZ
1 01KWXCKO7NZA00CUGD
1 01KVGJD5GAD8007FVT
1 01KUWU7B2U6I002DEU
1 01KUWSYUIBQW002DEU
1 01KT33NZM1YG002DEU
1 01KT20NGV54G002DEU
1 01KT0IRFG4WQ002O3W
1 01KT0EFA1708002O3W
1 01KT08A2WHUO007FVT
1 01KSZ8VDV80C002DEU
1 01KSZ65K873A002DEU
1 01KSXWTM9YL6002O3W
1 01KSXQ420128002O3W
1 01KSW6IRJIEU002DEU
1 01KSW57NBMJU002DEU
1 01KSUQ3YIS6O009UB
1 01KSSWPNAZS0002DEU
1 01KSS57SEMEQ00AE
1 01KSS4VOC3UW00AE
1 01KSQRPDDTPE002DEU
1 01KSQDUOCSEE002DEU
1 01KSPRDKTJ7200AE
1 01KSPHV89YF2002O3W
1 01KS8NG6MPA2009UB
1 01KS5OP8K4RO002DEU
1 01KS089V3Y40002DEU
1 01KRLYIRSE3W00AE
1 01KRKJ7GQ3PM009UB
1 01KRB7W73PXI00AE
1 01KRAO4HIJ9200AE
1 01KQXJ08MY2E00AE
1 01KQXI2CVYEC00AE
1 01KQXG8HY0CM00AE
1 01KQTWL8HOKY009OMN
1 01KQT7J5O71Y009OMN
1 01KQSPWQZ4GI009OMN
1 01KQSMDJEP9A009OMN
1 01KQR2TXIGII009OMN
1 01KQPSV8ZVPS009OMN
1 01KQ684QLEX2001ZTY
1 01KPBK83BHRI004VR
1 01KOYW4ODO5U004XU
1 01KOYU1DXQOI004XU
1 01KOT9MFPS1C004XU
1 01KNDO3BOV7600628S
1 01KLJZFE40HA0001B
1 01KLBOH06IB60001B
1 01KLAG31RZ4A0001B
1 01KKZOLNW0UA0001B
1 01KIVW17LTEU000NJJ
1 01KIUYLDQDJ0000NJJ
1 01KIRL1NPHEQ001HMU
1 01KIKXB7DOIA0001B
1 01KIJ96XDENO0001B
1 01KIJ8EYUI4U0001B
1 01KHUAVKP2CW000ASW
1 +zqc
1 +w9mA+77oX2cNSsgf1BqZg
Mutt accounts for about 4% of the messages, far behind Mozilla, Microsoft's
Outlook variants (Outlook, Outlook Express, MIMEOLE, Exchange, Internet Mail
Service, Entourage, etc.), Eudora variants and look-alikes (e.g Sylpheed).