I confess that we use Sendmail at my office, not one of the commercial packages. We do some pretty cool things there so when I look at commercial Linux mail servers, I'm always checking to see if buying one would end up limiting my functionality compared to what I've got now. SuSE's Linux eMail Server III has an amazing number of features integrated into its GUI, including all of the DNS functions for handling virtual domains and hosts. If I were a brand new mail administrator this program would save me hours and hours of fussing with Sendmail and BIND and numerous other tools. As a user, I'd definitely love this product, its Webmail actually lets you create mail filters and autohandling scripts, along with supporting some pretty cool calendar and scheduling options.

SuSE Linux eMail Server III is built specifically for SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 7, and the operating system comes packaged with the mail server. You'll have to dedicate an entire machine to this one as you can't just add it to even another existing SuSE installation. However, if you're investing in a commercial mail solution, then this factor will probably not cramp your style.

The mail server and operating system are built for both Intel x86 and AMD processors, so most Personal Computers will do just fine. Minimum hardware requirements for the combined OS and mail server are as follows:

• AMD K6 or Intel Pentium II processor * 128 MB RAM
• 2 GB hard drive space

However, the recommended setup is heftier, as usual:

• AMD Athlon/Duron or Intel Pentium III processor
• 256 MB RAM
• 9 GB RAID hard drive space

Next: Getting SuSE Linux eMail Server III »