Re: a good mail server

["Jerry Murdock" <jmurdock@itraktech.com>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "corgi" <corgimax@hotmail.com>
To: <misc@openbsd.org>
Sent: Sunday, June 02, 2002 12:42 PM
Subject: Re: a good mail server


> One consultant I talked to uses Exchange for all the other stuff
> (calendering, etc.) except email and doesn't allow outside access to the
> Exchange servers, it's internal only.  He uses sendmail on a Sun Cube
> (Linux) for email.  When the rest of his company gets blown away with
> viruses, IT admins from other divisions (that run exchange exclusively)
> always call him wondering why his division never has any problems, he says
> "sendmail my friend, sendmail".
>
Then the other admins should be fired.  Virus propagation issues are not
handled with any MTA by default. The practices/procedures to control them
are pretty much the same regardless of the MTA, whether it's sendmail,
exchange, postfix, exim, etc.

I avoid exchange whenever possible, more because of licensing $$$ as
anything else, but there is not a good open source (or *nix for that matter)
alternative that does everything as well as Exchange does.  Some may do
parts MUCH better, but getting everything users are used to having is
difficult. The closest are probably Notes and Openmail.

I wouldn't recommend anyone go with Openmail until we see how Samsung
follows through with  it's successor.  As for Notes, I don't really see it
as being any better than exchange, other than it can run on different
platforms, and if you force the Notes client you don't have Outlook issues.

A good IMAP server with Steltor's Corporate Time calendaring is close, but
even then you are still missing features people will want if coming from
exchange.

> As for groupwise, my company spent $50,000 on groupwise 5.5.  You can tell
> it's a half-baked product,
>
I'll agree here, but the DB vs text file issues are more an issue with the
implementation, not just the fact it's a DB.

> So you might want to think about OpenBSD sendmail for your email and keep
> Exchange for all the other stuff.
>
The MTA is the simplest part of the problem.  The more critical parts
are pop/imap/ldap, folder/calendar/contact sharing, client software, and
management.

Once the exchange genie is out of the bottle, the noise level generated with
any replacement will be high.  Few other than the admins(and maybe
accountants) will be happy with it.

There are a lot of reasons to replace exchange, "viruses" alone isn't one of
them.  None of the major viruses have had anything to do with exchange
itself.  They may take advantage of Outlook/Outlook Express holes, but
unless you force users to switch clients, those problems will still exist.

Jerry