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Date:      Mon, 24 Feb 2014 11:49:40 -0600
From:      Mark Felder <feld@FreeBSD.org>
To:        freebsd-current@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Import of DragonFly Mail Agent
Message-ID:  <1393264180.28812.87188993.20F1344F@webmail.messagingengine.com>
In-Reply-To: <530B5DA7.1050902@digsys.bg>
References:  <CAFY7cWBh0ThajQpK4wZYj0wPrhTL608wtNDQNvOLnryjp4_jCg@mail.gmail.com> <20140223211155.GS1699@ithaqua.etoilebsd.net> <942222.61849.bm@smtp118.sbc.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> <530B5DA7.1050902@digsys.bg>

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On Mon, Feb 24, 2014, at 8:56, Daniel Kalchev wrote:
> 
> On 24.02.14 13:47, Thomas Mueller wrote:
> > I don't believe BSD users use base system of itself to send and receive email.  They use ports (FreeBSD) or equivalent in other BSDs.
> 
> One of the beauties of the BSD 'base system' is that upon installation 
> you have an usable workstation/server environment that can be 
> immediately used for most Internet-related tasks -- and this most 
> certainly includes SMTP. Or NTP. Or... used to include DNS.
> 

And one of the warts is our dedication to long support on FreeBSD
releases; FreeBSD 8 is still supported with 8.3 and 8.4 releases.
RELENG_8 was branched in August of 2009. FreeBSD 8.4 has an estimated
EoL of June 30 2015. This is nearly 6 years since the original release
-- an incredible amount of time to be maintaining such complex software.
(Though I'm aware that Sendmail's release process is rather slow)

> We can strip pieces of FreeBSD off and end up with an kernel. Or we 
> could keep the system very much usable out of the box.
> 

Imagine a world where everything in FreeBSD is a package and we have a
working "PROVIDES" framework. Upon installation you can choose the
software that "provides" the MTA role. Same for DNS, NTP, database,
webserver... That would be a great accomplishment along with a framework
to create a master install image utilizing the options/packages you
desire. I think this type of thing is definitely plausible if we keep
moving forward. My personal opinion remains that complex software is
better served/secured/maintained when it is handled in ports not in
base.



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