Rebuilding

[matt galster]

I'm looking at rebuilding my home server.  Initially installed as RH7.0 on
Alpha (milo, not SRM), and patched like crazy.  Patching new vulnerabilities
has become a PITA as RH isn't providing patches any more.

Choices  - it looks like it comes down to Debian or SuSE.  With SuSE you can
dl part of it for a CD, but I get the impression you gotta finish by
downloading as it goes along.  With Debian you can dl the whole thing & burn
to CDs.

Any comments?  I'm not looking for the religious war, I'd like practical
advice.

MEG

> -----Original Message-----
> From: discuss-admin at blu.org [mailto:discuss-admin at blu.org]On Behalf Of
> David Kramer
> Sent: Saturday, September 20, 2003 6:23 PM
> To: discuss at blu.org
> Subject: Re: Mail Servers
>
>
> On Saturday 20 September 2003 04:38 pm, dsr at tao.merseine.nu wrote:
> > On Sat, Sep 20, 2003 at 03:40:54PM -0400, Tom Lopolito wrote:
> > > I've been asked to help pick a mail server for a small
> company with
> > > 15-25 users. They want to bring control in-house. I have
> about 3 months
> > > to get up to speed on whichever is chosen but I'm having
> difficulty
> > > deciding which one to suggest. I've looked at Courier and
> Postfix so
> > > far. I've heard that Sendmail and Cyrus are great but
> probably way more
> > > than I need and more difficult to setup. Can I get some
> suggestions
> > > from those out there that have setup a mail server and their
> > > experiences?
> >
> > The realistic, well-supported choices other than sendmail are:
> >
> > qmail (www.qmail.org, cr.yp.to, www.lifewithqmail.org)
> > Pros: easy to configure, very secure, fairly powerful
> > Cons: the author is highly opinionated
>
> Note that in this case, "the author" is pronounced "the
> person who wrote the
> program and considers himself the one true programmer and all
> other ways
> than his are evil".  Severe religious war.  In fact, on
> another list both
> Dan and I are on, we just had one last week on this topic.
>
> > postfix (www.postfix.org
> > Pros: easy to configure, reasonably secure, extensible, widely used
> > Cons: more likely than qmail to have a security problem (but quickly
> > patched)
>
> I've decided next time I rebuild my server (which may be next
> weekend- Red
> Hat 7.3 is looking a little long in the tooth, and the patch
> level for Red
> Hat 9 has died down a little. But I'll post a separate thread
> about that)
> to switch to postfix instead of sendmail.
>
> My main motivation for staying with sendmail to date was to
> keep up on the
> most popular tool so if I need to admin an email server for a
> job, it will
> most likely be the one I know.
>
> Since it's looking more and more like my next job will
> require more detailed
> knowledge of deep frying and counting pickles than
> administering an email
> server, it's time to go with something I don't have to patch quite so
> often.
>
> > exim (www.exim.org)
> > Pros: reasonably secure, many many options
> > Cons: creeping featurism
>
> I've heard it's very hard to install, but that's not
> first-hand knowledge,
> and could be FUD.
>
> > Courier's IMAP is a good choice to use with qmail. I've never seen
> > anyone use the full Courier mailserver.
>
> I'm using Washington University's IMAP server right now, and
> am a little
> sick of it getting confused when more than one client log on
> at the same
> time (shouldn't that work???  Why should kmail get server
> access errors
> because I bring up my webmail??).  wu-imap uses mbox files (a
> file for each
> folder with all messages in that one file), and I want to
> switch to the
> other format (forgot what it's called)(a directory for each
> folder with all
> messages in their own file).
>
> I assume any will work file with any MTA.  Which will meet my
> needs needs?
> Are there any big differentiators?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> DDDD   David Kramer                   http://thekramers.net
> DK KD  There is an art, it says, or, rather, a knack to flying.  The
> DKK D  knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground
> DK KD  and miss.  All it requires is simply the ability to throw
> DDDD   yourself forward with all weight, and the willingness not to
>        mind that it's going to hurt.  That is, it's going to hurt if
>        you fail to miss the ground.
>                   Douglas Adams, "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".
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