Linux mail servers

Linux is a version of the UNIX operating system that has gained popularity in recent years. As an operating system, it is reliable, stable and can be downloaded at no cost. Due to these factors, various Internet Service Providers and other users use Linux as their operating system of choice.

The Linux kernel (kernel) was created by a Finnish student, Linus Torvalds, who called it Linux. Torvalds then made this code freely available to the world and invited others to add it as long as they kept up their free contributions. Thousands of coders from all over the world worked to improve Linux and it grew in features and number of users. Today, Linux has evolved into a full-fledged operating system and is poised to challenge the dominance of Microsoft Windows.

Due to the low cost and reliability of Linux, it has become a popular operating system for hosting web servers and email servers. Although Linux is more difficult to administer compared to Microsoft Windows, it offers more flexibility and configuration options.

Several open source email servers are available for the Linux platform. Open source is a term used for software application whose source code is freely available. Coders participating in the open source initiative freely share their source code for applications in the belief that by allowing anyone who is interested to modify the source code, the application will be more useful and bug free in the long run. Open source applications are available free of charge. Linux is a part of open source software.

Popular Linux-based open source email servers include Exim, qmail, and Qpoppter. Exim is a message transfer agent and was developed at the University of Cambridge. qmail is an Internet Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) and replaces the Sendmail system included with Unix operating systems. qmail uses Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) to exchange messages with message transfer agents on other computers.

Qpoppter is one of the most used server applications for the POP3 protocol. It supports the latest standards and includes a host of optional features. Unlike Exim and qmail, Qpoppter is not available for free.