Resolution? (was: inflammatory "Ubuntu is under attack")

[Peter Garrett]

On Tue, 20 Dec 2005 21:07:53 +0000
Matthew Garrett <mjg59 at srcf.ucam.org> wrote:

> On Wed, Dec 21, 2005 at 03:33:23AM +1100, Peter Garrett wrote:
> 
> > Erm, Matthew, as far as I know, an out-of-the-box Ubuntu install runs cron
> > jobs. Are you saying these jobs don't generate email? If so, I
> > respectfully submit that you are wrong. Or are you saying that because we
> > don't see them they don't exist?
> 
> Ok, let me rephrase that. An out of the box install /shouldn't/ be 
> generating mail. If it is, then I think we're doing something wrong :) 
> It's unacceptable for it to be generating anything important, because 
> unless a user is playing with the terminal then there's no way of them 
> finding out that that mail exists.

OK - and thanks for replying. I agree that unless the user "plays with the
terminal" or someone has configured their mail client to read the mail
spool, it is unlikely that they will see "You have mail". or know what to
do to read it. 

Some of the points made by others include the notion that a
system administrator could find the messages useful. In that context,
"System Administrator" might mean "Local geek friend", "Experienced family
member" or " IT person helping boss with laptop".

Any of those people might "play with the terminal" (in fact I expect they
would do so on a regular basis ;-) 

A situation where the messsage might be useful and important , as an
example, might be after a bad system shutdown, when files appear in "lost
+found", and cron advises that this has happened.
> 
> > I see. A very long thread appears on the users list, complaining about
> > functionality, and the response is to stand on your dig. Is it remotely
> > possible that some of the posts actually have some merit? Is it possible
> > that the developers have actually got it wrong?
> 
> >From the point of view of removing an MTA by default? No, I think that's 
> the correct decision. The argument that there should be some way for 
> cron output to end up being given to the user is a much stronger one, 
> but I don't think just adding an MTA back is the right way of fixing 
> that. 

We all look forward to a solution then :)

Thanks for the positive input.

Peter

-- 
Unix is hard to learn. The process of learning it is one of multiple small
epiphanies. -- Neal Stephenson