Tasos Kotsikonas writes:
> I am not a subscriber of this list so if you have any relevant comments
> please copy me too. Our company is looking around for qmail
> replacements that do DSNs,
Why? Why not just contract with one of the commercial support
organizations (http://www.qmail.org/top.html#paidsup) that specialize
in qmail ? Even taking the cost of that into account, qmail is still
going to be cheaper to support.
> While talking to various people about it, the following comments by
> one prominent entity in the email world [identity withheld] was not
> atypical:
>
> <<
> However, the author of qmail is a problem. besides simply being one of the
> more obnoxious people in the world, he is entirely rigid and unresponsive
> to user requests, as his non-conforming bounce format demonstrates.
This is completely unfair. The RFC for bounces is not widely
supported. Calling qmail "non-conforming" because it has its own
bounce format is like calling Eric Allman "non-conforming" just
because he's gay. Many other Open Source authors are fags (if you're
homophobic, stay clear of free software), and many other MTAs do not
support DSNs.
Dan is completely within reason to not support DSNs. As Phil Karn
once said, "A author of quality software has a duty not to support
brain-damaged standards". He was talking about IEEE 802.3 at the
time, but the principle holds true.
> I would strongly encourage looking at exim. I've heard very good things
> about it and the web page for it has an excellent tone. I'm told there is
> a pretty serious mass migration from qmail to exim. Many of us are
> delighted to hear it.
I see no evidence for this. Exim is Yet Another Monolithic MTA.
After working with qmail for a number of years, I can see many good
reasons for keeping your MTA small, and relying on external packages
for optional features. Basically, my feeling is that qmail is the
only genuine Unix MTA.
> So, is the final answer NO DSNs from qmail?
How deep are your pockets? I'm not saving this part of the world from
itself (I have my eye on saving a different part), so I don't share
Dan's opinion of DSNs. If you want me to implement them, just send me
a proposal and I'll quote you a price for it.
--
-russ nelson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://crynwr.com/~nelson
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