On Sun, Aug 13, 2000 at 02:01:54PM -0700, Pete Naylor wrote:
> Charles M. Hannum wrote...
> > Part of the point was to evaluate postfix as a *replacement* for
> > sendmail.  I don't think anyone has stated that we should keep both in
> > the long term.
> 
> Pardon my ignorance, but merging a package into the base distribution
> doesn't seem like a very clever way to evaluate it.  Isn't it possible to
> build and install postfix separate of the OS in order to test it?  Will
> all the other open source MTAs also be evaluated in this manner?

I don't know of any open-source MTA that doesn't run on NetBSD, many are
available from pkgsrc. Charles's (Ack! Fear the ' police! )
sense of the word 'evaluate' was to 

a) Put it in the standard install so that any issues can be resolved
	in the default setup, as applied to any NetBSD user.
b) Improve the mailer.conf setup to make sure it covers what MTAs need
	by fully implementing it with more than one mailer (for now).
c) Evaluate its appropriateness to the general NetBSD user.

I think people should relax about this issue. NetBSD developers aren't
going to let it get bloated.
(Go re-read http://www.netbsd.org/Goals/system.html if you don't believe
me)

Personally speaking, sendmail isn't 'The Right' mailer to ship with
Unix just because it always has been, anymore than NCSA or CERN
webserver code would be 'The Right' webserver anymore.

Break things down a bit - look at functionality instead of 'brand names'

Unix has generally shipped with an MTA included. Postfix is a modern
mailer, much easier to configure than sendmail, and much more secure.
(Both in terms of being easier to do something, and to be sure that
you didn't change more than you realized by accident.)

No doubt there'll be those who disagree, but to me, modern, easy to
admin, and secure design have more value than legacy, and "I already know
how", especially in the modern Internet.

-- 
David Maxwell, david@vex.net|david@maxwell.net -->
Any sufficiently advanced Common Sense will seem like magic... 
					      - me