Re: [exim] Debian as a 'Special Case' for Exim

Am Freitag, 18. Februar 2005 18:25 schrieb Walt Reed:
> > Aaaah, now you see the real problem: it's not exim3 in Debian but missing
> > support for old versions in exim-users. That's something different but
> > Debian's not to blame for that.
>
> It's debian USERS that are harmed due to the Debian policies. They
> can't get support because debian ships software that is old and dead.

Yes, nobody doubts that

> Phillip is doing a Great job of providing one of the best MTA's on the
> planet, with awesome documentation, etc. He (and the community) can't be
> expected to continue to support old code forever.

No, they can't and that wasn't my statement. I fully agree with exim3 being
not the latest&greatest and I also agree that its ok that support for exim3
is gone.

> People are still installing Woody new today, and therefor still doing
> brand-new installs of exim3. That is DEFINATLY Debians fault. There is
> nothing stopping Debian from doing "refreshes" and changing the default
> MTA to exim4 in woody - the backport has existed for a very long time.

Backports are there, right, but why exactly should Debian replace a working
exim3 with exim4? Maybe they should also replace KDE, and Gnome and X and
Apache and...
Yeah, that's called Debian Sarge.
I do not understand why it takes so long to release it, either. Policy in
Debian stable is to mostly only fix security stuff. Probably because if you
exchange exim3 with exim4, you get some pissed-off non-new users and like
above, various other <softwarename> fans complain why exim was upgraded but
non of the rest.
If you want a "somewhat tested but not stable", use Debian testing or Debian
unstable and look out for security fixes.
If you want to use Debian but not care much about upgrading except for
security issues (not all have a full-time admin), use Debian stable.
Or use something non-Debian that fits your needs better.

> If people are not going to read the docuementation or do any basic
> research before blasting in with lots of very basic questions, they
> don't deserve community support.

Right, just tell them in this case.
I have absolutely no problem that this list does not support exim3 any longer,
really. I use exim4 with Debian testing myself. But why not make that
statement clear to people _before_ they subscribe to this list to ask
question about this?


HS