Why is sendmail is part of the system and not a package?

[Erik Norgaard]

Jonathan McKeown wrote:

> Just as a matter of interest, if you want to rip sendmail out of the base 
> system, which MTA would you like to replace it with? Or are you suggesting 
> the system ship with no way to handle mail?

This thread moving of topic from OP, but it is always fair to debate 
what should be considered a base system. Is an MTA a requirement or a 
remnant from history?

And if an MTA is a requirement then asking which one is the best choice 
is also a fair question. An equally fair answer could be whichever 
change requires the least work.

No different than asking, why is NIS still in the base? Why no ldap? why 
BIND, but no http? Why NFS? etc...

I think the only void answer is because of tradition, that just seems to 
show that noone really remembers why some choice was made.

BR, Erik
-- 
Erik Nørgaard
Ph: +34.666334818/+34.915211157                  http://www.locolomo.org