Re: default setup (was: Sendmail woes (was: make anacron a base package))
>> "DS" == Dale Scheetz <dwarf@polaris.net> writes:
DS> I'm not opposed to defaults. I am opposed to the way the default
DS> MTA was implimented. I would have much prefered the use of
DS> update-alternatives in the way it was done for "editor" between
DS> the various editors provided.
I don't see a way to implement this. And I don't see that this is
useful. You usually don't need or have multiple MTAs installed.
The default alternative would be started automatically. You can't
start the other alternatives, because port 25 is bound.
For some esoteric setup, where you bind several MTAs to different
ports for comparision reasons, this would be cool. But we are talking
about the first time install of a newbie.
If someone wants to implement such a setup, he should go ahead. But I
don't believe this is useful for the majority of users.
DS> Instead, we elevated exim to become a "standard" package and
DS> denigrated the other MTAs to "optional". This violates the
DS> principle of "least surprise" at the very least.
This is my experiance: To the new users of Linux, a choice "Choose
your MTA: sendmail, exim, smail, vmailer" is bad. They don't know any
of the programms and they don't know which to choose. We should give
them reasonable defaults.
I nearly always hear "what should I select from these packages" when I
install Debian with a new Linux user, and we are at the select stage
in dselect. The magnitude of packages is confusing enough.
DS> Many people have complained that they were not expecting to find
DS> this result when installing a "standard" system.
This is something I don't understand. What did they expect? They sure
can choose the MTA they like, so this can't be it. So what do they
complain about?
DS> No problem, although I would rather you had commented on _my_
DS> particular rant. The new user must decide between 5 ill defined
DS> choices for configuration options, whether they install sendmail
DS> or exim.
Yes, this should be enhanced. We could collect some typical setups end
offer them with a description when to use them:
a) Computer has an regular IP-Address and is connected to the Net al
the time
b) Dialup box. Mail for local users is delivered immediately, remote
mail is queued until you dial into the internet.
...
I believe we can catch most of the situations with such a choice. For
each choice, there could be more questions (e.g. for choice b): Do you
have a static IP address? no-> Should I create some example entries
how to rewrite local usernames to official email addresses? )
etc.
This already goes into the realm of debian-admintool. I believe it is
a matter of description. Currently they are to abstract, so a user has
difficulties to choose the right one.
Ciao,
Martin
PS: Someone make the days longer, so we have more time to work on such
things ... :-(
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