Reasons behind defaulting atd and sendmail

[Timothy Murphy]

Les Mikesell wrote:

>>>> Why would people with desktops
>>>> (I take it you are using the term by contrast with laptops)
>>>> be any less likely to send (or receive) email?
>>> I think you are misreading the OP's meaning. You can send mail without
>>> using sendmail.
>> 
>> Obviously.
>> But what has that got to do with desktops or laptops?
> 
> I think he meant to contrast desktops to servers.

OK, thanks.
I often seem to mis-interpret the word "desktop",
as eg in "desktop environment" or "desktop manager".
It seems to be a word with several different meanings.

> On desktops some people might prefer to configure their MUA(s) to speak
> SMTP directly with an ISP or 3rd party relay, but the preference is more
> likely due to the nicer fill-in-the-form configuration interface instead
> of the overall functionality.

I must admit I'm rather ignorant in this area.
Are you just saying you could use another program in place of sendmail?
I understand that; but it is easy enough to turn off the sendmail service
and start some other service, if that is what you want.

Perhaps if you gave an explicit example of "speaking SMTP directly"
I would understand better.




-- 
Timothy Murphy  
e-mail: gayleard /at/ eircom.net
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s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland