[GLLUG] Postfix or Exim?

[Marshal Newrock]

On Thu, 11 Jan 2007 14:22:15 -0500
Ian Fitzpatrick <ian at yjusa.com> wrote:

> Hi All,
> 
> It's slow season at the company I work for, and that means I can  
> finally migrate them off our godawful Network Solutions hosted  
> email.  I'm thinking to go with an Exim/Dovecot combo, and just  
> wondering what people's thoughts are on Postfix vs. Exim.  I've used  
> both, but only on testing or home systems.  I think I'm ready to
> pick up a book and really familiarize myself with one of these MTAs.
> 
> My requirements are pretty basic:
> 
> 1.  Stable and secure
> 2.  Plays nice with dovecot
> 3.  Ease of administration (initial configuration not withstanding)
> 4.  Active and at least somewhat friendly development & support  
> community
> 5.  Marketability:  This is a bad reason to pick technology I know,  
> but I am kind of curious which of these are most widely deployed
> (and so which one future employers might look for in an applicant)
> 
> Performance is not much of a concern, we're a small company and only  
> have 35 or so employees.
> 
> It seems like both Postfix and Exim could fulfill all of my  
> requirements.  I read some comparison articles on the two MTAs, but  
> it usually seems like it's a wash.  What might tip you in favor of  
> one versus the other?

I deal with postfix quite regularly, and exim as I need to for CPanel.
I have far more postfix experience than exim experience.

That said, the most noticable difference I can see is that the postfix
configuration seems to be much simpler and easier to learn than exim.
exim requires several components to be configured, and then put
together, whereas in postfix, each item tends to be a separate, usually
independent, line in the config file.  exim can also do a little more
with aliases and the like.

My personal preference is for postfix.  You can get a basic setup done
quite quickly.  The documentation is also excellent.

> And while we're at it, if anyone can tell me a reason why I would  
> should pick Cyrus over Dovecot, I'm all ears.

I can't give you a reason.  Postfix 2.3 can use dovecot for sasl
authentication, replacing arcane, poorly documented, and difficult to
debug cyrus-sasl. I believe recent versions of exim can as well.

-- 
Marshal Newrock, Ideal Solution LLC
http://www.idealso.com