(first of all, isn't that really way off-topic here?)
* Steve Lamb (grey@???) [050927 02:54]:
> cron doesn't require mail-transport-agent but does recommend it.
"recommend" means: "there is in fact functionality present that could
work without". Well, yes, that's quite true. cron will not totally fail
if there is no MTA. :P
> At
> requires it. nullmailer fulfills that role. So in theory Debian could move
> away from Exim to nullmailer as a default install if the theory is that the
> default install is "smart-host for a desktop" and anything more complex would
> be specificly installed by the admin building the box.
Well, this has been discussed multiple times.
As of now, debootstrap doesn't install any MTA any more (as debootstrap
only installs base and >= important now, standard packages are left
alone). So, the "default mailer" is now a bit weaker than it is for
sarge (but of course, aptitude will still install anything >= standard).
However, the replacement of exim by {nullmailer, ssmtp, ...} cannot be
done as of now because all these tools are not really suited for default
install in their default configuration. The exim4-config-setup is way
better. Feel free to improve any of the other tools, but currently, it
doesn't work.
> 705 exim4-base 2615 2430 81 104 0 (Exim4
> Maintainers)
> 714 postfix 2600 2462 89 48 1 (Lamont Jones)
>
> There's a whole 9 places difference between Exim4 installs, which is by
> default, and people who rip Exim4 out in favor of Postfix.
Basically, popcon is way to unspecific to make any conclusion here (and,
as long as the current ftp-master and release team is not exchanged,
postfix won't become the default MTA).
Cheers,
Andi
