Ubuntu is under attack

[Derek Broughton]

Matthew Garrett wrote:

> On Tue, Dec 20, 2005 at 09:42:27PM -0400, Derek Broughton wrote:
>> Matthew Garrett wrote:
>> > Becuse the assumption that pretty much everyone checks the regular mail
>> > stream is inaccurate. In a default install (even pre-Breezy) that mail
>> > doesn't go anywhere that most users are likely to see it. My girlfriend
>> > doesn't go around opening terminals in order to check whether any cron
>> > mail has turned up.
>> 
>> But your girlfriend _does_ go around reading her "girlfriend at gmail.com"
>> mail, which I think is Mike's point.  If you _insist_ on the MTA, then
>> use debconf correctly to specify where to send system notifications, then
>> she would have it sent to her usual email account - NOT local delivery.
> 
> There's multiple problems here:
> 
> 1) You can't just provide an email address. You also need to provide a
> smarthost.

Absolutely - as I've pointed out elsewhere, if you deliver mail it's
mandatory that the MTA be configured correctly out of the box - and I'm not
sure that's a solvable problem.

> 2) Many of our users won't have an email address, or indeed any sort of
> internet access

I think that's not true.  There are very few people these days who use a
computer but not the Internet.

> 3) Even those who do have email addresses don't necessarily want to
> receive piles of email telling them that there are files in lost+found
> without telling them what to do about that

That's nothing to do with the issue at hand.  I think you're trying to solve
a problem at too high a level.   If an app is sending a notification that
there are files in lost+found without an explanation, the app needs to be
fixed.  Just discarding the mail is not a solution, and changing the
notification method won't solve the problem that Joe User won't know what
to do about it.  You might as well simplify things by just discarding any
files in lost+found (isn't the default install on Reiser, anyway? - no
lost+found :-) )

> 4) It's an extra couple of questions on install that would only benefit
> a tiny number of users

That's a matter of interpretation.  imo, if we now have notifications being
discarded, then it's an issue potentially affecting all users.
> 
> As I said, a better approach would be to ensure that notification
> reaches the users it needs to reach independently of email. I think
> that's achievable.

And I look forward to the solution - all the same, removing the MTA from the
default installation before the solution is in place is premature. 
-- 
derek