[NCLUG] New linux server

[Sean Reifschneider]

On Wed, Jan 30, 2002 at 10:22:49PM -0800, J. Paul Reed wrote:
>Well, you guys sell Qmail support... what should we expect you'd say?

We sell support for it because we use it, like it, and feel confident
recommending it to people who want a complete mail system.  If part of your
decision to use a mail server is wether it's author is considered a
nice guy by other people on the net, you may not want to use it.

Nobody is forcing us to use and/or support Qmail -- we do it because it's a
fine piece of software which is secure, can handle a quarter of a million
messages per hour on a reasonable computer if set up properly, and we know it
inside out...

We also sell Linux support...  So, are you saying that we shouldn't be
giving advice about Linux here because it's "tainted"?  It's not stopped
you from calling me in the middle of the night with questions *BEFORE*.  ;-P

>"Yeah, Qmail really blows. But we'll still support it for you." That sounds
>more like MCSEs who're having to support Exchange than someone who has to
>support an open source product.

Your point would be valid, if I ever said anything of the sort, or if we
had a history of supporting things that our opinion of is "it really
blows".  You'll be HARD PRESSED to find supporting evidence to the
contrary.

>Seriously though, I think it's interesting to note that you distribute
>Qmail as an SRPM instead of an RPM because DJB has an ego problem.

You'll find that we distribute nearly *ALL* our software packages as SRPMs,
not just qmail.  The only one for which that's not true is the Python RPMs,
and that's because I'm the official maintainer and the python.org site
really needs to have binary RPMs available on it.

But, it's true that DJB restricts binary distribution of qmail...  If you
*MODIFY* the source and build a binary, you can't distribute it.  Seems
fair enough to me -- particularly considering he's put up his own cash as a
bounty if anyone can find security holes in qmail...  I can fully
understand his desire to limit the distribution of *MODIFIED* copies of his
software.  Particularly when one of the goals of qmail is that it be
*SECURE*.

>And if you're a Linux newbie, Qmail is really not the way to go... I'd been
>adminning Linux in commericial-use applications for something like three
>years when I first installed Qmail, and the install didn't make sense to me
>the first time.

I had less Linux experience than that when I first installed Qmail.  I
found the "INSTALL" document to be incredibly easy to follow.  So,
obviously, YMMV.

You can hate DJB all you want -- that doesn't change the fact that it's a
solid, reliable, secure piece of software...

Sean
-- 
 Whenever possible, steal code.
                 -- Tom Duff
Sean Reifschneider, Inimitably Superfluous <jafo at tummy.com>
tummy.com - Linux Consulting since 1995. Qmail, KRUD, Firewalls, Python