Jerry wrote:
> Still, it would be better still if someone didn't break in and snuff
our candles out to force us to switch to electricity !
At some point a candle will burn out. Simple fact of life.
OK, so perhaps bad analogy - if it were an oil lamp, I could keep adding oil !
> What might have been a few minutes to you, is in fact a week or two
for me - building a new server, configuring it (the old configs
aren't really useful when the software has progressed over the
years), tested it fully, and then migrated all the users and their
data. That would, of course, be assuming I had the hardware to host a
new server on - which I don't.
Nothing personal; however, is this network a simple "home" one or are
you maintaining a mail server for a [business|group|organization].
If (1), then this is a great time to acquire those skills and install
those pesky tools. If (2), then perhaps it is time to call in a
professional. This job is obviously beyond your capabilities.
Nothing personal; however, this sounds like a text book definition of
the "Peter Principal" (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Principle>).
If you are going to run a mail server and hope to run it proficiently,
then acquiring the skills to do so are paramount to you. There are many
individuals on several assorted lists that would be glad to help you
get started acquiring those skills.
Yes, that is very personal and I take it as an insult. It's the very
reason OSS has such a bad reputation in some quarters - this apparent
insistence that you are not competent to do anything unless you can
write code. That IS the inference - that if I'm not capable of
compiling my code from scratch then I shouldn't be running a server.
If that was true, then why should all those people spend all that
effort packaging up software so that incompetent (according you you)
people should be able to install and use it ? In the same vein, then
it's an obvious extension that there is no such thing as a
competently run server using closed source code - after all, the
admin cannot compile the Windows or Exchange or ISS or ... their
server runs.
So please get off the high horse before you fall and hurt yourself.
Just because I don't build the software from source does not mean I
cannot competently configure and run a service. That is exactly what
I did several years ago for this particular server, and it's been
running very nicely until someone actively pulled the plug on it, in
practical terms, **WITHOUT ANY WARNING**.
I'd love to have enough hardware to run up a new server, with all the
latest software, and migrate all the users etc. Unfortunately, due to
internal politics I won't get that until all the other stuff gets
upgraded. I can't say more, but suffice it to say, there are a lot
more services running on OSS than there were when I started here -
but there has been no new hardware provided to run it - I only get
the hand-me-downs when it won't run the latest tech from a certain
well known closed source vendor.
That's politics for you - wish it wasn't the case, but that's how it is.
Now, I've always thought ClamAV was great - but when shit like this
happens it suddenly gets harder to justify OSS when one of your
vendors does exactly what you accuse the closed source outfits of
doing.
I can appreciate why it's been done, I just think it was done very badly.
--
Simon Hobson
Visit http://www.magpiesnestpublishing.co.uk/ for books by acclaimed
author Gladys Hobson. Novels - poetry - short stories - ideal as
Christmas stocking fillers. Some available as e-books.
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