Re: [exim] The next Exim release - will there be one ?

On Wed, Dec 05, 2007 at 11:38:02AM +0000, David Restall - System Administrator wrote:
> Is it time to consider alternatives to Exim as my MTA of choice ?
> Every sysadmin that uses Exim must be asking themselves this - this
> list and the other lists are not answering the future questions and we
> as a community need to be getting our heads out of the sand and making
> decisions about what we are going to do.

I'm confused about your concerns.

Are you concerned that there will be problems in the code that cannot
be quickly resolved? That there is missing functionality that still
needs to be added? Does your business require active development on
software in order for it to be allowed?

Keep in mind that an MTA has a fairly limited scope. Most commercial
entities would continue development at this point adding bloat for the
sake of generating future revenue, but for the most part, Exim is
fairly complete.

Playing devil's advocate, one could argue for the Exim 4.x tree to
eventually be put into a no-known-bugs status, and then permanently
frozen for all-time. That way, nobody would muck up the quality of
the documentation (a rarity in today's world of crappy so-called "Wiki
docs"), the code and the design philosophy. I'm not saying that's
what I want personally, but it could be a rational argument.

I think "developing Exim" simply for the sake of adding additional bloat
is an overall bad idea. Fixing bugs, refactoring code and adding
additional modules, sure, why not. But I hate to see Exim turn into
something awkward just for the sake of keeping development alive.

--
Dean Brooks
dean@???