I hate to contribute to this absurd thread, but I can't stand it.
First, let's stop with the name calling. Jumping from the mention (with documentation, I might add) that MS is looking into SPF, to the fact that you don't like their OS hardly makes your point seem more credible. It also doesn't help to call SPF "crap" without even a word of explanation -- if you'd like to convince us you might, I don't know, offer evidence or citations or anything other than a loaded, unsupported, single-word opinion.
Second, MS and AOL are large players in the email world. Maybe you don't mind not being able to communicate with anyone at Hotmail, MSN, or AOL, but for most of us, that's not an option. Hence it's probably not a good idea for us to simply ignore their decision to try SPF. Whether SPF is a valuable spam-fighting tool or not is irrelevant -- we may someday need to support SPF in order to play with MS and AOL.
While the merits of SPF are debatable, I think the idea of an interface hook for some sort of sender verification (and rejection/marking) is a good one. It doesn't have to be SPF specific, and in fact I'd suggest that it's not, as a standardized interface is almost always more useful. Setting up a SPF/domainkeys/etc. verification tool however, would be much easier if I could call it with an environmental variable, rather than hacking it into the delivery chain somewhere.
Such integration also allows for possible interaction with things like the tarpit system, or other existing pieces of qmail. Moreover, this sort of hook could be used to build custom authorization systems, which might be handy for say, allowing some users to send anywhere, and others to send only locally. I'm sure there are other examples as well; my point is that we shouldn't dismiss the idea of an ENV-driven mail pre-processor somewhere near the SMTP end of the system, as there are many potential uses, including SPF.
Zach
On Jun 21, 2004, at 5:22 PM, Henning Brauer wrote:
* Brian Clark <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [2004-06-21 16:12]:If [SPF] is complete crap, why are companies like AOL and Microsoft behind it?
yeah right, M$ windoze is the best OS in the world.
do your homework and read the SPF thread on the regular qmail list.
--
As a very witty man once said...
"There's a shortage of perfect breasts in this world. 'T'would be a pity to damage yours."
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