[Dclug] Mail server recommendations

[Crawford Rainwater]

Tim wrote:
>> The problem with Qmail is that the project has not been updated in a long 
>> time (last I checked, going on at least three years).  While I loved using 
>> it at the time, for a project to just be "dropped" is a security risk in 
>> itself since we all know that software is developed by humans, humans are 
>> prone to error, thus software eventually will have errors.
> 
> Yeah, that is my biggest issue with qmail, is the lack of a steady
> maintainer.  There are plenty of other folks who maintain fixes for
> qmail and updates, which are detailed on qmail.org.  The netqmail
> distribution is quite lean while fixing the major problems.
> 
> The software hasn't been updated by DJB in much longer than 3 years,
> possibly 7-10 years and yet it's only had a handful of bugs.  You should
> read his recent paper on it:
>   http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/06/0131227 
> 
> Even at that ripe old age, the software holds up really well.  You do
> have to be careful what third party enhancements you bring into your
> installation though.  Some of those are not so well written.
> 
> HTH,
> tim

In the end though, Qmail will need some things such as Courier-IMAP, 
SquirrelMail/Imp+Horde, Webmin (anyone suggesting Plesk will be shoot by 
my staff and I personally!), Amavisd, ClamAV, and SpamAssassin (probably 
some more without looking at how we use to do this setup "back in the 
day") with a DB back end (MySQL was my choice then) to handle the 
virtual domain hosting and other requirements requested by Ben 
originally.  Same with using SendMail or Postfix in place of Qmail. 
After some hair pulling, R&D'ing, and reviewing various postings on the 
subject matter...I give Ben a day or so to get it going configuration 
wise on a non-Gentoo box.  Gentoo wise, add in an extra day or so for 
compile time (yes, I am also a Gentoo sadist ;-)).

The reason for the comment on Plesk if those are wondering is that Plesk 
is VERY intrusive in making any Linux distro to Plesk's fancy.  This 
includes introducing unpatched and security issued versions of packages. 
  Webmin in contrast goes on top of whatever is on the system and works 
from there in a clean and non-intrusive manner.  But that is a tangent 
for another discussion.

For "quick(er) and simple(r)" I am going to suggest Zimbra and Scalix 
instead.  Zimbra uses Postfix and Scalix uses Sendmail IIRC.  And to be 
honest, Scalix use to be HP's old OpenMail system I am told too...so 
there is some history for folks.

--- Crawford
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