MTA in ubuntu deskop

[Thibaut Varene]

On Tue, 8 Feb 2005 17:24:02 -0800, Matt Zimmerman <mdz at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 08, 2005 at 09:55:08AM +0100, Thibaut Varene wrote:
> 
> > On Mon, 7 Feb 2005 19:04:41 -0700, LaMont Jones <lamont.jones at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> > [snip]
> >
> > >   lsb           Move to ship seed, document that one needs to install
> > >                 lsb to have an LSB compliant system.
> >
> > I'll just comment on that issue: is breaking LSB compliance for
> > default install a Good Thing (tm)?
> 
> The question, as I see it, is "does the desktop need full LSB compliance"?
> And I think the answer, at this stage, if lsb requires us to provide
> /usr/sbin/sendmail, is "no".
> 
> Users who need an LSB environment can install the package, which should
> ideally bring them into compliance (though we don't know whether this is
> true for Hoary).

I disagree. Being LSB compliant should be something a Linux
distribution aim at. That's why the LSB project was founded, so that a
user knows that when s/he has a LSB compliant distro, s/he can use
third party software which rely on such compliance.

In the long run I'm quite afraid you might loose potential user by
breaking LSB compliance in the default install... This is IMHO a very
Bad Thing (tm).

Why not considering something like this:

1) If the main concern is toward the default base policy about MTA
setting (local delivery only), then why not asking the question of the
delivery policy during base-install, having "local delivery" set as
default (and recommended) choice?
Then, if the user goes for that default choice, no more question is
asked, else, s/he can configure the MTA in a more appropriate way.

2) If the main concern is toward the MTA choice, well then we're all
screwed up ;) AFAICT, all distributions do make a choice for the
default MTA, and everyone got along with it. Experienced-enough users
willing to use *their* MTA can still install it afterwards...

OTOH, the same could be said about users complaining that the MTA
"doesn't work for them because it does local delivery only". If they
are experienced-enough to use a different setting, they can
reconfigure the package as well...

Anyway, again, I think it'd be a real waste to break LSB compliance.
Ubuntu aims at being one of the best distros around (if not the best
:-), and I think that being LSB compliant _by default_ is a
prerequisite for that matter...

HTH

-- 
Thibaut VARENE
The PA/Linux Team
http://www.pateam.org/