Giuliano Gavazzi wrote:
>
> which one in your opinion is easier to configure the usual (for me)
> way as I am used to install packages with configure (if required, not
> the case of exim) and then make, etc. I must say that I am not
> impressed by the number of problems raised on this list in the past
> by Debian users, but does that just mean that Debian is popular or
> that they used outdated packages...?
The problems you see with Debian on this list are due to three issues:
1) Exim is the default MTA on Debian, so a much higher proportion of
clueless newbies who shouldn't be running an internet-facing MTA at all
are seen on Debian than on other distros.
This problem won't be an issue for you, I assume.
2) The Debian package maintainers have customized and modified the Exim
config mechanisms quite aggressively, in an effort to handhold those
same clueless newbies. By doing so, they've obsoleted much of the
existing documentation and faq material available on the net for exim.
This has the effect of steepening the learning curve quite drastically
for people who are just beginning to leave clueless newbie territory.
This problem is easily avoided by those with clue, who can simply
install a standard exim config file as /etc/exim4/exim4.conf. All of
the debian config mechanism will still be there on disk, but you can
ignore it.
3) Debian's incredibly long stable release cycles mean that there are
very significant periods of time where Debian will be shipping as
"stable" a very outdated (and possibly buggy) version of Exim. This is
exacerbated by the fact that the actual "make release here" point is
chosen by Debian's release managers without much real warning (or
rather, too much real warning, leading to a wolf-crying situation), and
as a result, Debian will often ship as stable a relatively immature x.x0
or x.x1 release. For example, the current Debian stable release
contains exim 4.50. While many of the fixes from 4.51 were backported
into Debian's 4.50 package before Debian went stable, it would probably
have been better served to stick with 4.44, which had had 4 minor point
releases to stabilize before the major new features of 4.50 were introduced.
This _will_ be a problem for you if you choose to install Debian stable.
Options for avoiding it are running Debian unstable (but then you have
to worry about regular updates and random breakage), or Debian testing
(but then you have to worry about transition stalls keeping important
bug and security fixes from propagating in a timely manner -- although
that may be fixed now with the recent introduction of testing security
updates, only time will tell how well that works in practice).
Alternatively, you can check backports.org for newer versions of the
exim package backported to a Debian Stable base.
- Marc
