Linux based turnkey email system

["Fred H. Olson" <fholson@cohousing.org>]

On one of the mailing lists that I manage which has lots of
non techy subscribers there is currently a discussion of ways to get
more universal use of email by group members.  (Many of the subscribers
are members of various local groups of people that work closely together.)
There has been discussion of Webtv (an endorsement from a user),
talk of "email appliances"  (various dedicated devices for email only),
encouraging people to use the same software even the same hardware,
forming tech support subgtoups etc etc.  (There has been aversion to
Microsoft expressed.) 

I got to thinking that a Linux based turnkey email system that would run
on most any hardware (486's or better?) would be an ideal thing to
suggest. Has anyone ever set up such a thing?  To be worth doing it would
have to be fairly polished, otherwise various gotcha's, awkward aspects
etc would defeat the intent to be a turnkey systems for novices. Of course
there are likely to be some ISP dependent parts but maybe they could be
minimized.

To elaborate a bit more on my idea...  There are "restricted" shells; I
guess what I have in mind would limit options severely to reduce problems
but I'd be inclined to have ways that people who knew / learned enough
could remove the restrictions incrementally if they were so inclined but
done in such a way that they would be very unlikely to do so
unintentionally.

Has a project to develop something like the in the Open Source movement
been attempted?  If not, any thoughts on what software would be suitable?
Thoughts on tradeoffs of doing something with Netscape versus a non
Xwindows mailer only (or with Lynx) etc etc?

Fred    who is still a Linux novice but learning some and is discussing
with a fellow novice collaborating with a small group of other novices by
email to support each other in the learning process.  Inquiries welcome.

--
Fred H. Olson  fholson@cohousing.org    Minneapolis,MN   55411
(612)588-9532  Amateur radio: WB0YQM          List manager of:
Cohousing-L and Nbhd-tc (Twin Cities Neighborhood issues list)
More info:   http://www.mtn.org/~fholson/sig-detail.htm