# Postfix Overview - Introduction

Up one level | Introduction | Goals and features | Global architecture | Queue Management | Security

Postfix is the freeware project that I started during my sabattical year in the USA while visiting IBM T.J. Watson Research. I am grateful to IBM for the opportunity to write this software and for their permission to give it away.

Postfix is my attempt to provide an alternative to the widely-used Sendmail program. Postfix attempts to be fast, easy to administer, and hopefully secure, while at the same time being sendmail compatible enough to not upset your users.

The original plan was to release this software under a different name, VMailer. With the release in sight, IBM's lawyers discovered that VMailer was too similar to an existing trade mark. So, the program will go through its life as Postfix instead.

Postfix is a direct competitor to the qmail software by Dan Bernstein. That's competitor, not enemy. I'm sure that friendly competition will help to improve both programs.

Up one level | Introduction | Goals and features | Global architecture | Queue Management | Security