[PLUG] sendmail

[Jeff DeFouw]

On Wed, 26 Jul 2000, spoon fork wrote:

> Just curious, instead of qmail, why is everyone still using sendmail?

Because the alternatives aren't as good for some situations.  I've also
had experience with smail and qmail.  smail is incomplete.  qmail has
actually messed up the contents of some messages and isn't as flexible.

> Compared to sendmail, qmail is very easy to configure, it supports
> virtual adresses, easy e-mail and mailing list management via
> vpopmail,

sendmail is also easy to configure, it just has complex documentation.  
People stare at it and go "duh???" but the reality is most pre-installed
sendmail setups require no additional configuration.  Virtual addresses
are very easy in all of the mail servers I've seen.  Mailing list
management depends on the mailing list server.

> and best of all, it lacks security issues.

This argument is stale.  There hasn't been a security issue with sendmail
in a very long time (years).  Sendmail has long since gone under the
microscope for buffer overflows.  The only problems it had were when not
enough people (authors) cared about buffer overflows or any type of hack
for that matter, back in the 8.7 and earlier versions.  sendmail hasn't
been the only common piece of aged internet software with that problem.  
qmail didn't even exist back then, that's the only reason no one talks
about it with security paranoia.

--
Jeff DeFouw <defouwj@purdue.edu>