Commercial Sendmail (Was: Re: [cobalt-users] Generic UserIDs on Cobalt RaQs)

[Jeff Lasman <jblists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jens Kristian Søgaard wrote:

> They have a complete change log online (www.sendmail.org). And you can
> ofcourse just download the complete source code and examine it for
> features.

Of course, but if that's not "selling" a product.  I don't want to have
to dig for the feature list; I want them to tell me.  If I'm to pay for
a product, then I should be able to know what I'm getting.

I still get the feeling all I'm getting for my $99 is a compiled version
of sendmail.  And I'm not really even sure of that.

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with paying $99 for a compiled
copy of sendmail.  But there is if there's no way of telling if that
compiled copy will run on my machine, or what it offers me.

> Don't say, they're keeping it all to themselves.

Maybe not all, but certainly whether or not it gives me anything extra
besides the cd, and whether or not it'll run on my computer.

I just called Sendmail's sales department.  The salesman (not too
friendly a chap, unfortunately) told me that it does come compiled
rather than as source code, and that the Linux version would only work
on Linux 6.x and only on the Intel platform.

That's unfortunate for those of us with RaQ2s and Qubes, but at least
understandable.

When I asked him if it used a browser-based or X-windows GUI, he said it
was browser-based.  So if I read you correctly, and it was you who told
me I could get X-windows for for my PC, then you MAY have been wrong. 
Note I say MAY, because then I asked him what I should choose for the
GUI selection on his order page, since I run servers remotely and want
to administer it from my remote desktop from Windows, he had no idea. 
He said no one else could help me, either; that the only way I could
find out would be to buy the product, and then if it didn't work, to
purchase support.

Wow!  I can't believe he said that.  Nor do I believe that Sendmail
wants me to think that.

So I called Eric (Allman, author of Sendmail).  He's out of the country,
but his kind secretary told me she'll bring it to his attention when
next he calls in, that the sales department is saying that; I sense
they'll clean up their act a bit.  She also promised me she'd have one
of their technical people call me to clear up the issue, and that she'll
check back with me personally this afternoon to see if I'd gotten my
questions answered.  (She also asked me how I got his number, but that's
a different story <smile>.)

> > Please let me know where you saw it; I'd like to look into this further.
> 
> There's an item prepared on www.sendmail.net that explains Virtual
> Hosting with the new enhanced 8.10 version of sendmail. It's not up
> yet, but it's on the page -- and the complete version is bound to be
> there soon.

There are already similar articles for the current open-source versions
of Sendmail.  But I don't see anything that says it's any different from
the method we're using now.  And I've seen nothing on the site to
indicate that Sendmail now includes a POP3 server.  As long as it's
dependent on standard POP3 and standard logins, there's no way user
"bob" can exist on two different domains.  Yes, there can be
"bob@xxxxxxxxxxx" and "bob@xxxxxxxxxxx".  But one needs to login as
"bob1" and the other as "bob2".

Of course I could be completely wrong; I won't mind being wrong.

But I will point out that if I'm wrong, it's quite unlikely that the new
compiled Sendmail Switch will work within the framework of the RaQ3s
gui; quite unlikely that the RaQ3 will be able to set up users for it's
obviously nonstandard mailbox server.  (Frankly, it's unlikely that they
could call it POP3 anymore.)

Jeff Lasman
-- 
Jeff Lasman <jblists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
nobaloney.net
P. O. Box 52672
Riverside, CA  92517
voice: (909) 787-8589  *  fax: (909) 782-0205