On 13 March 2002, exim said:
> I am currently a big Microsoft User.
I'm sorry.
> I want to start learning Linux.
Good for you! Just don't forget that Linux is not the only Unix in the
world (although it is my favourite).
> I am going to need an email system that is
> comparable to Microsoft Exchange. Does EXIM compare?
Probably not; Exim is pretty secure, pretty reliable, pretty fast, and
implements the relevant RFCs pretty darn well. I've never used Exchange
myself, but from what I've heard it is none-of-the-above.
> What versions of Linux does it run best on?o
Exim is the default MTA for Debian Linux, but Debian is still, alas, an
"experts-only" distribution. Newcomers are probably better off with
Mandrake or SuSE; I believe Mandrake's default MTA is postfix, which is
generallly quite well regarded as well. I expect it's not too hard to
install Exim on Mandrake, though.
> Is it difficult to learn EXIM?
It can take a while to wrap your head around it, but once you "get it"
you can do some pretty neat things. One of the best things about Exim
is that it's easy to test your configuation thoroughly, and to get
debugging output to explain why such-and-such isn't working.
You should buy Philip Hazel's book (*Exim: The Mail Transfer Engine* I
think), read it, and then dive into the spec. Note that the book covers
Exim 3, so if you decide to use Exim 4, you'll need to read some of the
online docs to find out what changed since Exim 3.
Greg
--
Greg Ward - software developer gward@???
MEMS Exchange http://www.mems-exchange.org
