[SLUG] Why i started using mutt

[Al Girling]

On Sun, Jan 25, 2004 at 04:36:31PM +0000, Paul Teasdale wrote:
> On Saturday 24 Jan 2004 23:51, Jamie Adams wrote:
> > Mutt is, without doubt, the king of email clients. It can be tailered to do
> > pretty much anything you could want an email client to do. The only bad
> > things I could say bad about it, from my point of view anyway, is the poor
> > pop/imap support and the initial learning curve. I used to use Mutt
> > exclusivly, until I forgot to backup my muttrc when reinstalling. I just
> > haven't had the inclination to go through the setup again (yet).
> >
> > Jamie
> >
> 
> I have got to agree about your comment on the pop/imap support. I have never 
> investigated mutt (let alone use it) but on Wednesday IRC when Al explained 
> you also needed to configure a local MTA for mutt to work (unless you patch 
> it) I was a little taken aback.
> 
> Fundamentally there is absolutely nothing wrong with configuring your own 
> local MTA as opposed to pointing at your ISPs MTA but these things are not 
> easy to configure correctly (especially sendmail). Using your own local MTA 
> also means that there is an extra server process (with an open port) running 
> in the background on your computer that you need to be at least aware of. 
> Also when you browse security related websites MTAs seem to be very easy to 
> exploit for various reasons the most common being due to incorrect 
> configuration. Open mail relays and spammers always on the lookout for one 
> come to mind here.

Well pointed out Paul.  It's always good for people to be made aware of
potential security risks etc.  However, I'd like to point out there are
many other MTA available as well as the very powerful but potentially
risky (when mis-configured) Sendmail.

By default Debian uses Exim which was simplicity itself to configure.  a
simple walk through of 5 questions which included the option to use Exim
to relay mail or not.  I'm not going to claim to be any sort of MTA
expert, but do feel confident it's pretty secure.

I think I might have mislead you by using the term 'patch' when talking
about getting pop/imap support with mutt.  I think I'd have been more
accurate to say it's an option to turn on.  Or at worst an option to be
compiled with.  Sorry for the confusion!

Toodle pip,

Al

-- 
Al Girling			Registered Linux User: 290080
				http://counter.li.org