[WBEL-users] Postfix or Sendmail

[John Hinton]

Karl-König Königsson wrote:

> Milan Keršláger wrote:
>
>> Postfix is more secure. Sendmail is big ball with big holes (at least in
>> the past).
>
>
> I agree, these are my impressions too, that's why I tried Postfix in 
> the first place.
>
> The problem with Postfix is not security but compatibility. I have 
> noticed that many extensions to mail systems, such as spam filters 
> etc., are very Sendmail-centric. It can be hard to integrate some 
> tools with Postfix just because it is a different program and a 
> different architecture.
>
> By design is Sendmail a more vulnerable target than Postfix, that is 
> hard to neglect, and Sendmail has had more and more severe bugs over 
> the years. There are and will always be patches but who is first when 
> a new hole is discovered? Me or the bad guys?
>
> And this is the pearl: Postfix is better by design but Sendmail has 
> been around longer and has more tools.
>
> This is as far as I got before I posted to the list. Basically I feel 
> caught between a rock and a hard place: security or extendability.
>
> Please keep the opinions coming... ;-)
>
>     Karl-König Königsson
>
The big guy on the block always gets blindside punches. Sendmail more 
bugs? Or sendmail more people trying to break in and finding the holes? 
It could be argued that sendmail has been more thoroughly tested against 
intrusion. Look at Microsoft... I'm personally sort of hoping that Linux 
never makes it to mainstream, or we'll be the ones 'everyone' is trying 
to crack.

So, for me, personally, I think there are only two real alternatives. 
Sendmail and qmail. If qmail weren't such a bear to install and 
configure, I might be on that system. For now, I'm still on sendmail 
simply because there is so much good stuff that works out of the box 
with sendmail.

I've never really studied nor tried postfix, so I can't really make any 
real recommendation. Just really wanted to point out who gets punched at 
the most.... Just like RedHat takes the most blows in the Linux world. 
Perhaps we should all go to Debian and qmail if we want to reduce the 
number of attacks/bugs found?

John Hinton