-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Sancho2k.net Lists Sent: Tuesday, March 22, 2005 8:24 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Fwd: [BSDcert] junior, senior system administrator (?)
Arnaud Bergeron wrote: > >> BTW, I don't like sendmail, prefer Postfix instead. > > > Everyone has his favorite, of course. That's why we shouldn't be > app-specific. Personal preferences aside (I am almost to the point of despising Sendmail myself), I believe there is still merit in considering Sendmail by default for BSD certification tracks. o It is part of the base operating system for at least FreeBSD and OpenBSD (never used any others.) OpenBSD goes so far as to include an optimized/hardened fork of it with their system. Other MTAs are available as ports or packages at best and need to be retrofitted into the system using mailwrapper or other modifications. o It is arguably the most ubiquitous piece of application software in BSD servers in history. o It is still the #1 MTA on the Internet even though so many people claim to dislike it. o It is undoubtedly the most capable and featureful MTA available. o You can't run from it. It's always going to be there. You may not use it now or like to use it ever, but chances are that future employment will put you in a position where you must know it. I think its slightly unfair to harp on sendmail for being application specific any more than it is to call foul on CVS, for example. You HAVE to know and understand CVS to maintain your BSD systems (in one form or another) although you could say that it is application specific along with Subversion, RCS, CVSup or others. So yes, while I agree that it is application specific knowhow, my opinion is that Sendmail needs to be considered part of the core knowledge for BSD systems management. DS _______________________________________________ BSDcert mailing list [email protected] http://lists.nycbug.org/mailman/listinfo/bsdcert I am not sure how much of this dialog I have missed, but here's my two cents. Breaking the certification down into different levels may be an option here rather than having a single monolithic certification. Providing a certification for a Junior Sys Admin that doesn't require the advanced knowledge needed to get Sendmail up/running/hardened seems like an intelligent thing to do. Having a more advanced certification for System Administration that is up front about the application requirements would offer the benefit of allowing backup operators, daily administrators as opposed to system architects to become certified and demonstrate their ability to complete their jobs to peers and management without requiring them to become Sendmail gurus. (sorry, run-on sentence.... :) JS _______________________________________________ BSDcert mailing list [email protected] http://lists.nycbug.org/mailman/listinfo/bsdcert
