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List:       postfix-users
Subject:    Re: Why the name Postfix?
From:       Wietse Venema <wietse () porcupine ! org>
Date:       2022-03-27 22:00:57
Message-ID: 4KRVBx4kZhzJrNy () spike ! porcupine ! org
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Viktor Dukhovni:
> On Sun, Mar 27, 2022 at 09:08:53AM +0530, Amarjeet Anand wrote:
>
> > What?s the story behind choosing the name as ?Postfix??
>
> One of the stories can be found here:
>
>     https://techmonitor.ai/technology/ibm_takes_on_sendmail_with_secure_mailer
>
>     ...
>     IBM calls the new mail program Secure Mailer, but it is actually one and
>     the same as Postfix, which is the same product as VMailer. IBM?s lawyers
>     nixed the VMailer moniker because it was too similar to another
>     company?s product.
>     ...
>
> This sounds plausible.  As for why "Postfix" and not, say, "Platypus", I
> don't know.

We tried a bunch of names for which I could register a domain name,
and each time the IBM naming authority would reject our choice.
Changing the name of a program is a lot of work; it is worse than
changing the name of the main character in a story.

Then we found out that a different IBM team had open-sourced their
PKIX code under an external name "Jonah". So we gave my code two
names: the approved internal name "IBM secure Mailer", and the
external name "Postfix". "post" was a different word for "mail",
and "fix" was for Sendmail, the inspiration for my efforts.

        Wietse
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