Somehow e-mail lives on despite spam, instant messaging, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Heck, if it weren't for e-mail notifications, I'd never check my Facebook page. But what's driving e-mail these days?
A look at MailRadar.com shows that Sendmail is still the No. 1 MTA (mail transfer agent) in use today, followeded by Postfix, while Qmail is a distant third. And dear God, someone is still using MMDF. Surprisingly, Microsoft Exchange isn't even in the mix, which casts doubt on the validity of those numbers, but it's probably safe to say that Sendmail remains the top MTA.
[ Sendmail is one of InfoWorld's Top 10 Open Source Hall of Famers. Read the full story in "The greatest open source software of all time." ]
The rallying cry behind most non-Sendmail MTAs is that they're, well, not Sendmail. Sendmail is much maligned for being a security risk, but my experience of running hundreds of Sendmail-based mail servers and mail relays does not bear that out. Over the past 15 years, I've yet to see Sendmail used as an attack vector.
Case in point: I recently helped a friend set up MailMan on a hosted Linux VPS server. The VPS ran Plesk and Qmail. Seems simple enough, except that in this particular case, e-mail for the domain was hosted elsewhere, so a subdomain was required to push e-mail traffic to that specific server. Still, that's a very minor configuration issue, or so I thought. After several hours of diagnosing perplexing Qmail errors, I switched the whole server over to Sendmail and had everything running in a matter of a few minutes. Indeed, my familiarity with Sendmail assisted here, but I'm not a Qmail newbie either -- there are some significant problems related to Qmail and Plesk in this instance, and I simply wasn't willing to fall all the way down that particular rabbit hole.
Another stick poked at Sendmail is that it suffers from Byzantine configuration. Speaking as someone who's written custom rulesets for a hideously complex Sendmail structure, I can verify that when you start digging into the guts of Sendmail, it gets crazy real fast. But the point is that you really can dig into the guts. Like many things in computing, high configurability comes with high complexity. The reality is that 99 percent of Sendmail configurations are extremely simple -- a few lines in a sendmail.mc and a make and all is well.
Get the independent advice and expertise you need to support a virtual workforce.
The increase in Linux popularity has increased the frequency and sophistication of malware attacks. Read this 2 page white paper now to learn how you can protect your Linux environment with real-time protection that is certified by all major Linux vendors.
Download now »
Ensuring acceptable application delivery will become even more difficult over the next few years. As a result, IT organizations need to ensure that the approach that they take to resolving the current application delivery challenges can scale to support the emerging challenges. This handbook elaborates on the key tasks associated with planning, optimization, management and control and provides decision criteria to help IT organizations choose appropriate solutions.
Download now »
A common misconception is that mid-range storage requirements are dramatically different than that of a larger enterprise. Mid-range storage users may require less capacity, but they have similar functionality and management requirements. This ESG paper examines mid-range storage needs and reviews a new solution that adjusts size while retaining value, performance and functionality.
Download now »You mention migration headaches. I've been in similar situations myself, and I feel your pain. Perhaps not suitable for internal email migrations, but there's a tool called Yippiemove, which is an SaaS for email migration. If you're looking to simplify email migrations, this tool can definitely save you time.
Granted, it's not free, but IMHO it's well worth the money. I've used other open source tools such as imapsync, and imapcopy, but they don't come close. In particular if you're on a busy schedule.
Sign up to receive InfoWorld Resource Alerts
219 Recommendations
