Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1998 13:55:47 -0500 From: Christian Kuhtz <ck@ns1.adsu.bellsouth.com> To: "Jonathan M. Bresler" <jmb@FreeBSD.ORG>, alexandr@mail.eecis.udel.edu Cc: dcs@newsguy.com, committers@FreeBSD.ORG, current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: HEADS UP: Postfix is coming. new uid, gid required. Message-ID: <19981231135547.W4306@ns1.adsu.bellsouth.com> In-Reply-To: <199812311832.KAA01002@hub.freebsd.org>; from Jonathan M. Bresler on Thu, Dec 31, 1998 at 10:32:29AM -0800 References: <199812311807.KAA27750@hub.freebsd.org> <199812311832.KAA01002@hub.freebsd.org>
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On Thu, Dec 31, 1998 at 10:32:29AM -0800, Jonathan M. Bresler wrote:
[..]
> 1. Wietse Venema's beta is better then many finished products.
> We have been using it to deliver the FreeBSD mailing lists for
> months.
[..]
Does it really make our product better if we deploy beta code in it? There is
a reason why Wietse is so highly regarded, and that is because of the fact that
he is so careful. So, if we trust his reputation, shouldn't we at least have
the grace to follow his footsteps? If it's good stuff, it'll be around in a
few months, and people who are clamoring to get Sendmail relief will most
certainly be able to survive a few months longer. They have thus far.
It is great that hub.freebsd.org has been running on it very succesfully.
Wietse doesn't appear to care about it to move it to released stage?
> 4. if you believe that there is a problem with postfix, please tell
> me what it is. the problem must be one with postfix, not how its
> labelled or who is hyping it.
[..]
Labels do make a difference. Many corporations have written Q&A rules
according to which you cannot/must not deploy any product and run production
on it that is labeled as beta. It is completely irrelevant if it passes the
internal Q&A if it is labeled as beta.
We're one of them. And you can very well get fired for doing it anyway.
I like vmailer^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hpostfix a lot and use it for lab purposes. But
neither I nor anyone else anywhere in this huge organization can deploy it
currently for that very reason.
We should be conservative in released components, particularly with regards
to commercial use. I am not against Postfix, I believe in Postfix. Yes, I am
very unhappy with Sendmail's state at the present time.
Sendmail is not part of the equasion, it is how we do releases and how
carefully we maintain the code base. Introducing something that's labeled as
beta into a release is not a part of careful code base maintenance, IMHO.
If memory serves, Postfix would indeed be the only thing in /usr/src/contrib
which is beta.
We are setting what might be a perhaps dangerous precedent. Even though I like
the idea of having Postfix around.
Cheers,
Chris
--
"Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists."
-- John Kenneth Galbraith
[Disclaimer: I speak for myself and my views are my own and not in any way to
be construed as the views of BellSouth Corporation. ]
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