Re: why is sendmail the adopted mta?

["Simon 'corecode' Schubert" <corecode@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 02.01.2005, at 02:15, Miguel Filipe wrote:
> After talking about this on #dragonflybsd@ efnet, and with some
> agreace that there are more pleasent, easy and secure mtas out there,
> ppl suggested I talked about this in the MLs.

. .. about the 10th time or so, now

> One thing that allways itches in my head is why almost all bsds use
> sendmail has the default MTA.
>
> Why do I have gripes with sendmail?
> 1) Its difficult to configure
> 2) it has a lousy security track record
> 3) there are very good (superior) alternatives

these are your opinions, i gather. other people might disagree.

> But there are also other choices: exim; qmail; ....
> And the same way that I'd prefer that sendmail wasn't forced on me
> when I install a  dragonflybsd... I don't mind having the choise of
> mta on install.. instead of a default one.

we're not there yet. not even half way; for that we'd need to package 
the base system which is something that is highly controversial, too.

> A also good solution, instead of adopting some other mta, having the
> user too choose the mta on install is also better than having sendmail
> installed by default.

that's the same as above. but where do you draw the line? maybe i 
myself don't want to use bsd ls and instead use gnu ls 
--with-fancy-colors=yes. should we give the user a choice there, too? i 
don't think so. but you have a choice when compiling world: set 
NO_SENDMAIL (or however it may be called) and sendmail won't get built. 
install the postfix port and you're happy.

> Why do I bring this up?
> Because I see no good reason to keep using sendmail ... and because I
> believe that dragonflybsd is doing a great work adopting and creating
> new software solutions that look better than the existing ones....
> pf
> open ntpd
> dragonfly itself .. when comparing to freebsd.

as you might see no ``good'' reason, there might be hundreds of people 
seeing a very good reason to keep it.

> In conclusion, I  thought about this because  I think that replacing
> sendmail with postfix is a reasonable, racionnal and inovative move
> that plays well with the DragonFlyBSD spirit!

in conclusion i think that keeping sendmail in base is a reasonable 
point, too.

i don't use sendmail, too. i'm using postfix, from ports, and i'm happy 
with it. you got the choice.

cheers
  simon

keywords: better MTA sendmail postfix switch change remove base system 
neverending story

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