Muhammad Yousuf Khan: > > btw i have a question in my mind . postfix is mail server. but the > question raising in my mind if postfix is the complete server then why > we have to add several other tools like mentioned above > (dovecot,spamassassin etc) ?
When Unix/Linux people talk about mail servers, they usually mean MTAs
(mail transport agents). That's the software that talks SMTP and moves
mail between systems, e.g. from your mail host to the mail server of
your recipient and vice versa. Postfix is a quite popular MTA, even
though Debian defaults to Exim.
Dovecot is an IMAP and POP3 server. Its purpose is to make mail
accessible to your users in case they use a mail user agent (Outlook,
Thunderbird/Iceweasel, mutt etc.).
Roundcube does the same, but by using a web interface instead of using
IMAP/POP. You can always offer both because Roundcube needs an IMAP
server in the background anyway.
Spamassassin is a mail filtering tool that your MTA can use in order to
decide to reject or silently delete unwanted mail. There are other
programs with a similar functionality.
The Unix philosophy is still "one job, one tool". And for each job you
can pick the tool most suitable to you from a variety of alternatives.
The downside is that you have to learn all those tools and how to plug
them together. The upside is that you learn all those tools. :) That
helps to diagnose problems and solve specific requirements in your
environment.
The all-in-one approach is probably ok for closed systems, maybe without
a dedicated administrator. In case of Zimbra you get additional
groupware functionality , like a calendar service. For external mail
routing, personally I would always pick one of the standard MTAs. For
office environments, people mix both approaches by using a standard MTA
for external communication and use some kind of groupware internally.
J.
--
I lust after strangers but only date people from the office.
[Agree] [Disagree]
<http://www.slowlydownward.com/NODATA/data_enter2.html>
signature.asc
Description: Digital signature
