[CentOS] Recommend Mail Server

Mon Nov 23 17:22:06 UTC 2009
Timo Schoeler <timo.schoeler at riscworks.net>

>> As others have already suggested, consider Postfix.
>>
>> I'm putting in my $0.02(US) so I can add my experience when I first had
>> a need for a decent MTA.  I had used Sendmail in the past, but I didn't
>> want to fight with the arcane syntax of the config files, and at that
>> time the add-on management tools and scripts were not nearly as friendly
>> to a beginner.
>>
>> When Postfix was suggested to me, I started reading the docs on their
>> Web site, and discovered that the learning curve is nowhere near as
>> steep as it is with Sendmail.  So far, Postfix has done everything I
>> have needed, and with a LOT less pain.
>>
>> As always, YMMV.
>
> +1. Let me throw in something else. If youa re sending more than one email
> at a time (to more than one person simultaneously), Postfix will beat
> Sendmail. It can handle high loads better than Sendmail as well. Is it the
> fastest MTA out there? Doing some Google Fu some time ago, it's right
> there with the very fastest ones. For my job, I need to send out emergency
> notifications to 400 people at once. With Sendmail, that took over 7
> minutes. With Postfix, that takes seconds, and mostly because of the
> "handshaking" with the downstream host. If it's fast, I haven't even got
> time to send the message, get to a command prompt and type "mailq" and see
> it leaving the outbox queue...because it is already gone!
>
> Gilbert

I can second this; having deployed a bunch of mailing list servers 
myself, I can tell postfix is _very_ efficient. One can tweak it even 
further using multiple instances [0], thusly each 'tuneable' to special 
purposes (e.g., serving mailing lists).

exim [1] also is very powerful and on some topics even more 
configureable, but IMHO not as easily implemented as postfix and, due to 
it's design, not as efficient.

[0] -- http://www.postfix.org/MULTI_INSTANCE_README.html

[1] -- http://exim.org/

> *******************************************************************************
> Gilbert Sebenste                                                     ********
> (My opinions only!)                                                  ******
> *******************************************************************************