% chaos seminar talk about masqmail
%
% markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
% since 2009-02-24


\documentclass{beamer}

\title{masqmail}
\author{markus schnalke}
\date{2009-03-09}

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	\section{#1}
	\frame{ \vfill\vfill \centerline{ \huge #1 } \vfill }
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	\frametitle{#1}
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\begin{document}


\frame{

\vspace{8em}
\begin{center}

{\huge\bf masqmail}

a mail transfer agent for workstations and small networks

\vspace{6em}

{ \tiny
markus schnalke \textless{}meillo@marmaro.de\textgreater{}
}

\end{center}
}



\frame{ \ft{overview}

1) about me

2) about masqmail

3) short explanation of my thesis

4) further development of masqmail

}




\secframe{about me}


\frame{\ft{markus schnalke}

studied Business Information Systems

at University of Applied Sciences, Ulm

diploma thesis about masqmail

now Master studies at University, Ulm

}


\frame{\ft{I am interested in}

Free Software

Debian

suckless software

the Unix Philosophy

}






\secframe{about masqmail}



\frame{ \ft{what is masqmail}

a Mail Transfer Agent (MTA)

a small one

and one for special setups

}


\frame{ \ft{masqmail's niche}

non-permanent online connections

over multiple providers

especially for workstations and small networks

also notebooks (maybe the largest market)

}


\frame{ \ft{history}

written by Oliver Kurth

between 1999 and 2003

most likely:

- to manage masqdialer-controlled ISDN connections

- source of the name (``masq\dots'')

}


\frame{ \ft{masqmail today}

development stopped in 2003

not maintained

even its website is down

but included in Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, Mandriva, FreeBSD

}


\frame{ \ft{value of masqmail}

covers a niche

has unique features

has users!

}


\frame{ \ft{problems of masqmail}

no further development

unfixed bugs

emailing has changed

}


\oneline{questions about masqmail?}



\secframe{when I meet masqmail}


\frame{\ft{using unmaintained software}

Fall 2007: started to use masqmail

Spring 2008: realized it is unmaintained in Debian

A situation to be changed ... but by whom?

... me? No!

}


\frame{\ft{diploma thesis}

Summer 2008:

problem: find a topic for the diploma thesis

The great idea: solve two problems

use the diploma thesis to revive masqmail

}


\frame{\ft{advising professor}

Professor Sch\"affter

thanks!

}



\frame{\ft{guiding principle}

\begin{center}
	\it
	Do what you think is interesting,\\
	do something that you think is fun and worthwhile,\\
	because otherwise you won't do it well anyway.

	---Brian~W.\ Kernighan---
\end{center}

}





\secframe{the thesis}


\frame{\ft{general decisions}

write in English

do the thesis for myself

... and for the Free Software community

thus, make it free available (see my website!)

}



\frame{\ft{planned was}

- purpose and structure of an MTA/of masqmail

- security analysis

- code improvements

- documentation, test, distribution


With the goal to release a new version and get it into Debian
}


\frame{\ft{however, it resulted in}

- (introduction)

- market analysis

- mail transfer agents

- masqmail's present and future

- improvement plans


Became pretty theoretic (I don't worry)
}







\frame{ \ft{ch01: introduction}

general prerequisites

the masqmail project

value and problems of masqmail

\textbf{$\Rightarrow$ reasons to do this thesis}

}



\frame{ \ft{ch02: market analysis}

classification, life cycle, and trends of electronic communication

SWOT and trends for email

\textbf{$\Rightarrow$ show that email is expected to survive}

}


\frame{ \ft{ch03: mail transfer agents}

classification of MTAs

masqmail's competitors

short comparison

\textbf{$\Rightarrow$ provide knowledge for following chapters}

}




\frame{ \ft{ch04: masqmail's present and future}

the goal (revive masqmail)

requirements

\quad\quad fulfilled requirements

\quad\quad work to do

ways for further development

result

\textbf{$\Rightarrow$ the core of the thesis: a plan to revive masqmail}

}



\frame{ \ft{ch05: improvement plans}

more detailed descriptions of the work tasks

\textbf{$\Rightarrow$ recommendations how to do the proposed changes}

}


\oneline{questions?}





\secframe{MTAs in detail}

\frame{\ft{MTAs}

- relay-only MTAs (forwarders): nullmailer, ssmtp

- groupware: Lotus Notes, Exchange, opengroupware.org

- ``real'' MTAs: sendmail, exim, qmail, postfix, masqmail

}



\frame{\ft{market shares}

FIXME

}



\frame{\ft{why not sendmail}

- too large

- too complex

- structurally insecure

- simply obsolete

}

\frame{\ft{why not exim}

- too large

- designed for always online hosts

}

\frame{\ft{why not qmail}

- outdated

- designed for always online hosts with fast connections

}

\frame{\ft{why not postfix}

- too large

- not designed for masqmail's scenario

}

\frame{\ft{in summary}

- other MTAs are bad substitutes for masqmail

- though they seem to be generally able to be substitutes

}


\oneline{comments and annotations?}




\secframe{Requirements}





\frame{\ft{the result}

``one fits all'' is not possible

hence: different strategies for different goals

short-term goal: keep masqmail usable\\
\quad\quad$\rightarrow$ improve existing code

long-term goal: make masqmail future-proof\\
\quad\quad$\rightarrow$ recreate it from scratch

disadvantage: more work

}
















\frame{
	\vfill\vfill
	\centerline{\textbf{Thanks for your attention}}
	\vfill
}


\frame{\ft{links}

--all urls--

}




\frame{ \ft{software used}

Debian GNU/Linux

\LaTeX\ with the beamer classes

Vim, latexmk, and Mercurial

\vfill

{\scriptsize The slides are available on \url{http://marmaro.de/docs} \hfill 2009-03-09 }

}




\end{document}





\url{http://ulm.ccc.de/ChaosSeminar/2009/03_masqmail}