@jwildeboer @trxxruraxvr @homelab
The problem isn't that selfhosting email is impossible. It's that selfhosting email requires a level of babysitting that _almost_ nobody is willing to put up with for long. People generally do not want to setup DKIM and SPF only to find out later that now they have to setup DMARC. People generally do not want to spend a couple of hours getting their mail server working again because their Dovecot v2.3 config file is totally not compatible with Dovecot v2.4. People generally do not want to run a half dozen applications pasted together with peanut butter and chewing gum for what appears to be a single service. People generally do not want to figure out what is required to make custom spam evaluation rules because 5-10 spams a month is an unacceptable level of garbage. People generally do not want to spend days or weeks trying to get Microsoft to quit flagging them as spam even after jumping through their SNDS hoops. People generally do not want to invest more time managing a protocol/service that gets slightly less relevant every year.
I selfhost email... and I also do it with Postfix and Dovecot. I just realize that compared to a relatively hands-off service such as Prosody for XMPP or nginx for http/https (hopefully without PHP) running a mail server is a big hassle that many people are just not willing to put up with. And anyone who has accidentally turned their box in to an open relay, isn't going to be very motivated to get back on the horse. Don't get me wrong, I think people SHOULD selfhost email and that people saying "selfhosting email is impossible" should shut the fuck up... I just think that anything instructing people to selfhost email should come with the disclaimer that it is more of a pain in the arse than most services.
PS: Yes, the Dovecot v2.3 to v2.4 upgrade will very likely break things unless you create a new config file in advance.
My three cents. ™️
