Ok, before I get kicked off the list, seriously - FreeBSD 4.x and 5.x had issues with UNIX sockets in the VFS portions of the kernel until 4.10 and 5.3 or 5.4 (unsure) - however, after those issues were fixed, Courier seems to run really well on the latest versions of FreeBSD.
We have Courier installed on several systems - 4.11, 5.4 and 6.0 - also running is sparc64 environment with 6.0 all with zero problems - all installed using the typical:
cd /usr/ports/mail/courier
make install
cd /usr/local/etc/courier
# edit configs
launch it and forget it -
our sparc64 (E450 w/2 450Mhz CPU and 3GB RAM) writing mail to a NetApp Filer NFS mount has been up for a year with zero issues.
However, if you like "user-friendly" GNU tools, stick with Linux. I use sh as my shell and ed as my text editor - ... - get a grip man - install bash on FreeBSD and use emacs or whatever RMS friendly program you want on FreeBSD (geez - but real developers use vi/vim for goodness sakes).
I've written quite a few courier filters now in C and in Perl and other than a few of my own problematics issues with "my" code, not Courier's, there seems to be zero issues.
We do run Linux and FreeBSD systems side-by-side and honestly, Linux runs a little faster MySQL database - so honestly, if you want a bit more bang for your buck, Linux will run a better SQL Server.
Stability wise, in 15 years, FreeBSD still has Linux beat - so sacrifice the speed a little and regain stability with FreeBSD. I'll get killed for that statement - both OS's have had their share of issues, but on really busy systems, its been my experience that Linux still has some page caching issues (non-aggressive recoup of stale memory pages - what I hear).
For most folks that have 1 or 2 thousand users, a simple AMD 2600 with 512MB of RAM with even an ATA100 80 gig drive will work just fine.
But of course - its just an opinion... I still think I'll shoot for that Win98 config!
D
On 3/30/06, Dew Ediho <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
This is mostly an accademic question, but one whose answer will benefit my curious mind.
I have been running courier mta (the whole shebang but for sqwebmail) for nearly 2 years with no major hiccups.
My implementation runs on FreeBSD 5.3 on Compaq Proliant Servers.
I haven't had the benefit of running a production server in any other environment and would like the opinion (please share your experience) of members of this group on which you would consider to be the best platform for Courier?
FreeBSD, NetBSD, etc
Linux (all distros)
Solaris?
HP-UX, others.
Your comments and observations will be highly appreciated.
Thanks.
PS: Thanks Mr. Sam and all other great contributors to the courier movement!!
Wole Akpose
Heritage Network Technologies
--
Derrick T. Woolworth, President
ServeTheWeb, LLC. http://www.ServeTheWeb.com
