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History and use of the mail utility
Magical Mail
A good pedigree is an important aspect of a software package for several reasons – especially if the software is installed on a valuable server. Often, it will help ensure that operational facets of the package have been carefully considered, such as its integrity, reliability, compatibility, and security.
I mention a package's pedigree because I recently stumbled across a tiny piece of software that I used extensively some years ago, and it reminded me how steeped in history that package was. Despite its diminutive size and unquestionable sophistication, it is shrouded with confusion harking back to its provenance.
Along with other key services associated with the Internet of the past, historians looking back will always include email as a cornerstone. Without email, the Internet might not have gained as much traction and might have failed to conjure the staggering uptake it has achieved.
With that in mind, you might consider the inbound and outbound aspects of email at a more technical level, and how the Post Office Protocol (POP) in its various versions and incarnations was all pervasive until a few more features were required, such as encrypted login details. This was just one of a variety of reasons that the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) gained popularity. Also, I would be remiss not to include the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), which surfaced as far back as 1982 and still remains the champion for outbound email on today's very different Internet.
As a sys admin, providing services so that end users might enjoy picking up and sending email messages is a relatively well-documented procedure. Popular mail servers and mail clients slot together nicely, and the docs read clearly and concisely.
Consider, however, when you need do something slightly off-piste and a mail client won't just plug straight into an out-of-the-box mail server's services to solve your problem. Sys admins since time immemorial have
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