Hi,
> >>Well my answer to this is "don't use qmail"<<
>
> This note from Patrick intrigued me. It intrigued me because I remember
> myself being so frustrated with Qmail, I cursed and said "The only reason
> I am using Qmail is because it is too hard to switch over to something
> else." There were times when I wanted to scream in frustration.
I'd like to set the record straight. I am not on a crusade against qmail.
More the contrary, I find that it is a great MTA. However it has its own set
of quirks that I grew more and more uncomfortable with as time passed. At
this time, I use it along with other MTAs to get what I want done. And when
it comes to select an MTA, I base my choice on my knowledge of the
alternatives, it may or may not be qmail for a given task.
As Sam mentioned, sometimes interacting with qmail is *very* frustrating.
But this is the same with any piece of software that exists. The key is to
use it the way it works best.
Regarding the 0.0.0.0 issue and all of that I guess that people are split
between calling it a bug or not. Well does it really matter ? Can the patch
for this issue be integrated in qmail and the issue die off ? It seems to me
that it would be more important to not have the undesirable side effect than
to argue endlessly on what to call it.
I would also like to add a note on qmail and security. This piece of code
was created with security in mind and it fulfills this goal really well
apparently(1). Security requirements are somewhat changing these days and
restricting it to mean "root-exploit" feels a bit outdated now. But again,
when you look at the overall picture, qmail succeeded where so many MTAs
still fail miserably today. The fact that people are arguing about an issue
that could eventually lead to a DOS more than 2 years after qmail was
released speaks for itself: DJB did a really good job with qmail.
(1) I use apparently, because it would be futile to say that it will never
ever fail. It is very very very unlikely but is it impossible ? I think that
if DJB thought that "impossible" is the answer, he would not have bothered
with setting up a contest in the first place. He put is money behind his
work and never had to pay up. Draw your own conclusion.
Finally, to put my quote more in context, what I meant is that people who
are not happy with free software do not have to stick with it. This does not
say that qmail is inapropriate or bad or anything like that. As for my
choices, I am the only person responsible for them.
Patrick.
