Re: qmail or postfix? (was: RE: What is the best mailling list manager for qmail and Domain Tech. Control ?)
On Thu, Feb 19, 2004 at 09:34:52PM +0100, Bj?rnar Bj?rgum Larsen wrote:
> [3] Craig Sanders wrote:
> > ps: qmail is a bad idea. postfix is better.
>
> Your conclusion may be right, but the arguments are missing. Would you please
> share?
search the archives of this list. MTA comparisons have been discussed many
times. i've made the arguments several times before and i'm getting bored of
it.
to summarise:
1. because qmail is so different from other MTAs, it is a dead-end trap, just
like proprietary software. bernstein doesn't believe in making any effort to
assist people who were using other MTAs and want to switch - migrating to qmail
is a pain, and migrating away from it is just as bad.
2. it has severe licensing problems, which mean that the code basically
stagnated years ago. no patches are ever accepted into qmail, and the author
doesn't appear to be interested in making any improvements (in his estimation,
it is already "perfect"...ignoring several glaringly obvious faults and lacks).
the license means that using qmail is a reversion to the bad old days before
free software became ubiqitous - the late 1980s for instance. back then you
had to hunt for the original source (easy enough), then hunt for every patch
that you needed to make it useful, then apply them (and hope that the patches
are compatible....discovering by trial and error that they can be compatible
but only if applied in a particular *undocumented* order), then compile and
install it.
3. bernstein insists that you discard years of practice, tools, and techniques
and start from scratch. if you don't like it, then you are a moron because
bernstein is Always Right so don't complain.
4. the configuration is truly bizarre. bernstein has his own non-standard
directory structures, and a liking for many little files. many of these files
are 'magical' - the contents are irrelevant, mere existence of them alters
behaviour of the program, and even causes programs to be run automagically.
this makes it impossible to experiment by temporarily commenting out particular
lines - you have to delete a file, and then hope you can remember what it was
called if you need to re-enable that feature.
it also means that there is no config file containing comments to serve as
working reference documentation.
5. bernstein likes to reinvent the wheel. he does this (and does it badly)
without regard to whether the wheel actually needs to be reinvented or not
(e.g. ucspi-tcp).
this is compounded by the fact that it is a complete PITA to use any of his
programs without using all of his programs.
6. the author is a rude jerk. this is undisputed, even by those who actually
like bernstein's software.
craig
ps: as for postfix being better - it is:
1. free software, with a real free software license (IBM public license)
2. actively developed, with a friendly principal developer and helpful
developer & user community.
3. backwards compatible with sendmail, so migration is easy
4. secure
5. fast (much faster than qmail)
6. the best anti-spam features of any MTA available
7. more features than you can poke a stick at
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