Reasons behind defaulting atd and sendmail

[Les Mikesell]

Michael Cronenworth wrote:
> 
>> If you don't use email, why are you using computers again?  And if you 
>> do, you've provided exactly this information to one or several email 
>> client programs.  Doing it once for sendmail lets any number of users 
>> run any number of email clients that just hand off to sendmail for 
>> delivery.

> Please provide an example that shows a majority of Fedora users use 
> sendmail for their primary mail delivery system where it is not blocked 
> by their ISP and they required no text file configuration to get it 
> working.

What does that have to do with making it available?  Sendmail can 
deliver under any circumstances that you can use any mail program.  I 
agree that the supplied configuration tools are inadequate, but this is 
fedora not a Mac (which by the way, includes a working 
/usr/sbin/sendmail although it's really postfix).

>> You may not understand the value until your machine dies and you are 
>> curious about the warnings that preceded it (like smartctl screaming 
>> that your disk is not healthy) so you might avoid the problem next 
>> time.  If they've automatically been delivered to some other machine 
>> they will still be available when you decide they are important.
>>
> Since users don't read root mail or setup alternate transport methods, 
> how would they read their SMART messages? Sure, *you* would setup an 
> alternate mailbox on another server, open the iptables hole, allow 
> sendmail to receive on all interfaces, etc. etc. but the issue is still 
> the majority of users.

I already have mailboxes elsewhere - getting root's mail sent there is a 
matter of adding an alias for root.  Sendmail receives local messages on 
the permitted localhost address and doesn't need to receive on other 
interfaces for outbound delivery.

>> Huh? I think you mean 'you' didn't install any of them - or you don't 
>> know that you did.
>>
> Again, you're off base and it's becoming an attack against me. Please 
> read my e-mails. This entire thread is about the *default* fedora 
> install. Clicking Next through all the install prompts.

I think there is a better argument that the configuration should be made 
more user friendly than that the functionality should be removed.  Are 
you really trying to say that users should not be given an opportunity 
to use a standard mail system when they install a unix-like OS?  I 
disagree with that, although you do have a point that the current state 
makes it difficult enough to set up that many users don't bother.  But I 
don't think that justifies removing it - and I'd expect more than 
logwatch to have RPM dependencies on a mail transport.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at gmail.com