Re: What does support mean? (Re: Exim4 with a Goddady account)

[Nate Bargmann <n0nb@n0nb.us>]

* Chris Bannister <mockingbird@earthlight.co.nz> [2009 Jan 25 06:02 -0600]:

> Also, just because Exim4 is the Debian default, why does that mean it
> should have *more* "support" than, say, postfix or any other MTA.

Hold on a minute!

I'm not sure what caused this tempest in a teapot to occur, but suffice
it to say that since Exim4 is the *default* MTA I would expect more
experience with its configuration than with any of the other MTAs in
Debian.  It's a raw numbers game and Exim4 should have more list
members available to offer support than the number 2 used MTA.

The fact that Exim4 doesn't get discussed much indicates that it must
work well enough out of the box for most users.  Looking at the popcon
page, of those installations reporting, exim4-daemon-light is installed
by 68.10% of people and used by 65.03% of users.  See:

http://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=exim4

Now, it's quite possible that all Exim4 is doing on many of these
installations is simply handling daemon mail and the MUA of choice is
handling the smarthost duties.  It's also quite possible that many
Debian users have a simple smarthost that doesn't require the special
configuration of GoDaddy's smarthost and this thread now exists to help
others, i.e. it will provide "support" in the future.

It's quite possible that the Postfix users may well be more
knowledgable per capita than the Exim4 users even though Postfix
appears to be the number 2 MTA used in Debian per:

http://popcon.debian.org/main/mail/by_inst

It seems to me that the level of support enjoyed by a particular
package is dependent on the experience of its users (a package with low
installation numbers and rank may have highly experienced and
knowledgable users) and the chance that such users subscribe to and
read this list.  In other words, it's a craps shoot.

- Nate >>

-- 

"The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all
possible worlds.  The pessimist fears this is true."

Ham radio, Linux, bikes, and more: http://n0nb.us/index.html