[exim] The great thing with Free Software

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Author: Jethro R Binks
Date:  
To: exim-users@exim.org
Old-Topics: [exim] The problem with Free Software
Subject: [exim] The great thing with Free Software
... (or rather, open-source) is that you are free to take that restriction out of the code yourself, if it suits your environment to do so.

Jethro.


On 3 Jun 2013, at 20:20, Allen Bell <abell1204@???> wrote:

> No one would argue that some of the best software on the planet has come
> from free software projects where the author or authors have no higher
> purpose than to "do better." Additionally, the bulk of their improvements
> have come from finding clever and sometimes even brilliant ways to
> incorporate user requests.
>
> But sometimes, the developer ego gets involved and once they make a
> decision about the "right way" to do something it becomes cast in concrete.
>
> My case in point today is having installed the latest version of Exim and
> finding that the directive placing "root" on the never list - cannot be
> overridden.
>
> As a default - that is without question a good idea. But making it a
> hard-coded restriction implies that the author knows my system, my office,
> my environment, my business and my needs better than I do. In fact, the
> very last thing in the world that I need is a programmer trying to save me
> from myself.
>
> Even worse, if the mere act of placing a series of ASCII characters in a
> file on a disc named /var/mail/root can cause a security breech... redesign
> your program or find someone better than you who can do it for you.
>
> In my opinion, there is a special place in hell for programmers that decide
> that they know best what other people need and how they should do things.
>
> And finally, for all those of you reading this that are getting a twitch in
> your backsides...
> having this almost uncontrollable urge to reply...
> asking why in the world I'd want to do something that YOU don't want to
> do...
> telling me why *I* shouldn't do what *I* want because *YOU* think it's
> wrong...
> telling how YOU do it because YOU found a work around...
> attacking me for having the audacity to have formed a different opinion
> that you...
> ... you're as big a part of the problem as anyone else.
> --
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