Subject: Re: Postfix
To: Todd Whitesel <toddpw@best.com>
From: Pete Naylor <pete@supernal.net>
List: current-users
Date: 08/12/2000 23:59:34
Todd Whitesel wrote...

> > Why are both sendmail and postfix included at all?  Surely one MTA in the
> > distribution is enough (or perhaps even too much)... postfix (and all the
> > other MTAs such as my favourite - exim) should be packages which people
> > can choose to download/install if they wish.
> 
> Other parts of the base install (/etc/daily, /etc/weekly, send-pr, ...)
> expect there to be at least one mailer installed. So if you just pkg-ize
> all of the mailers, there will be consequences.

I understand.  One suggestion I might have would be to offer several
different MTAs as packages, and document the download and install of the
preferred one as part of the OS install.  Still, I'd be perfectly happy to
have sendmail continue to be included (though not listening on the SMTP
port by default).  Including more than one MTA is ugly and silly.  Though
I don't like sendmail, it does fulfill the purposes you mention above just
fine, and a lot of people are accustomed to it, own books about it, etc.

> > I suppose the base distribution will include several variations on the
> > HTTP daemon theme next.  *sigh*
> 
> Not likely. BTW, there's no need to infer some nefarious conspiracy to
> destroy the cleanliness of the system.

That was your own contribution.  I'm simply suggesting that a mistake has
been made (including postfix _and_ sendmail in the base distribution) and
that I'd hate to see that continue as a trend.

> It is an unwritten (but nevertheless true) goal of the NetBSD project to
> bloat and bogonify our system more slowly than everyone else. So far, I
> think we're doing an okay job...

Me too - that's why I've long been using NetBSD.  I don't want to see it
become needlessly fat and ugly, so I'm hoping that voicing my concern on
the list will eventually get some sort of productive response from those
who merged postfix in.  Thus far, there's been nothing, and nobody has
been able to explain why it's a good idea to include two MTAs (neither of
which are wanted by a large number of sites) in the base distribution.
This seems totally out of character for the NetBSD that I appreciate.

-- 
Pete Naylor