A mailserver distribution 4061

In a message on 12 Jul 2005 05:15:37 -0700, wrote :

There really isn't a 'dedicated mailserver distribution'. That said, almost any distribution can be installed to be a dedicated mailserver. It is a matter of customizing the install. To work on older hardware, you want to avoid some of the more 'bleeding edge' distros (like the FC* distros). You probably also don't want a 2.6.x kernel. I'd suggest WBL 3.0 (www.whiteboxlinux.org). The RedHat distros are fairly easy to install and WBL 3.0 is 'Free (as in beer)'. I don't know what you mean by 'Work on older hardware' -- if Pentium I (eg '586 processor), any distro will work. If you mean '486 or earlier, there might be issues with almost all 'modern' distros, although most can be gotten to work -- you might need to create a customized boot install CD-Floppy with a i386 kernel on it -- I believe most of the modern installers use a i586 kernel for the boot installer.

Some thoughts:

* Don't install the X11 server or any of the GUI desktop packages (Gnome or KDE). Don't bother to install stuff like OpenOffice and the like. You will want the X11 *libraries* though. Set the machine to boot up to runlevel 3 (black console login screen).

* If using a RedHat flavored distro (like WBL), select the 'Server' install option. You will want to customize the installation packages.

There is a web-based (eg http) configuration tool available. I've not used it, but it is said to be fairly easy to use.