Bruno Negrão wrote:
Hi everybody,
Thank you very much for the info.
Let me tell more info about us.
We already use Qmail in our 6 mailservers for 4 years. I installed all
of them. I even wrote
http://www.qmailwiki.org/Simscan/Related_Docs/Simscan_ClamAV_Chkuser_Installation_Guide
What means I'm used to the Qmail+Inter7-tools+Patches lifestyle, I know
it works.
Let me tell you some things we(specially him) don't like in Qmail, some
of them were already mentioned:
1) the fact that qmail stopped being developed so every improvement has
to be made craftily: applying patches, install a bunch of administrative
tools, install antivirus, etc. All these procedures are made manually,
there's no "Super Qmail 2005" package, with all the pieces already
gathered.
Well, hold on here. There is, but they are developed by people
independently of DJB, obviously. What they are called (Get your Google
finger ready) are Mail Toasters based on qmail, net-qmail, etc. If I
remember correctly, you will find two big ones out there -- Shupp and
Matt Simerson. I use a Mail Toaster based on Matt's, using FreeBSD.
There also seems to be something called qmailrocks, but I don't
generally hear as good reports as from the Toasters.
You will need to choose one of these that installs fast, has a large
user base, and is constantly being updated. Of course, it will need to
support your platform, and have users which are familiar with your OS.
In 2005, these are your choices for qmail and a rolled-into-one package.
Maybe someone will put one on a bootable CD or something that you can
install en masse on a bunch, or every time you want another mail server.
But for now, they are all linked to the couple of dozen ports and
packages which can change at any minute (everything from openssl to perl
to spamassassin)
When you see what is rolled into the Toasters -- you could make a few
mistakes. #1, assume everything included is for you. #2, assume some
of the stuff included is worthless. Look into each unfamiliar port or
app they install to see if they are worth adding to your already
complicated installation. Maybe after a while of testing the basics
(say 3 to 6 months), you might get a glimmer and realize how you really
could use app-x.
2) a lot of research is needed to find how to install each improvement.
This time could be used for other things, of course. So there is a cost
here.
3) We don't have personnel and don't intend to dedicade C programmers to
develop patches for qmail by ourselves.
My boss actually dreams on making us a mail outsourcer for other
companies.We are already a small ISP, but he dreams about our customers
stop using their MS Outlook's to use our supposed beautiful
webmail/domain-administration solution of his dreams. So he wants to
know if there is something already close to it on the open-source
market. He wants to know if there is something ready. (don't get mad
with me, I'm just researching what he asked)
What's bad on inter7 tools? For example, my boss thinks Sqwebmail is
ugly, and it really is. But, IMP is a pain in the ass to set it up. We
substituted Sqwebmail to IMP, but when I have to update IMP I almost
break down and cry. Sqwebmail is easy and ugly, IMP is handsome and very
complicated to install.
But we're happy with Qmailadmin though. But could be nicer if Sqwebmail
and Qmailadmin were integrated and very good looking, providing a
continuos look and feel pattern.
When I saw Squirrelmail a few years ago, I cried as I installed all the
nifty plugin stuff for it. But once installed, they really haven't gone
through drastic changes in the source code since, so I have enjoyed a
nice webmail for years, and no hassles doing upgrades. I just know it
can be difficult to figure out all the pretty plugins I use (about 40,
some stock).
I will say this: sqwebmail is ridiculous. Dump it. Squirrelmail over
the years has never really given me a glitch. I wrote, by the way, a
lot of the Wiki on installing SquirrelMail to a Windows box. I run both
Windows and UNIX squirrelmail servers. Both run quite well. I would
recommend an imapproxy for this and any webmail server, though, for speed.
I want to comment what Kyle said here:
But look at it this way: there's nothing in the license that says you
can't take qmail, rename it to (mySweetMailserver, for example), and
release it under the GPL. That nobody's done that says something.
I don't understand about licensing, but I researching on Qmail-ldap, I
heard it is licensed "under BSD which is
DFSG-free" - having this licensing, could it be shipped with the
distributions? Do you have some opinion on Qmail-ldap?
Some ideas with webmail applications and domain administration?
Best regards,
bnegrao
Overall, I would say, the new development in qmail is done by the folks
which bundle up net-qmail, which is at revision 1.05. That is what to
tell your boss -- DJB is basically dead on qmail, so there are others to
look to for development.
Billy
