Entry

Aren't there all sorts of problems with djbdns? I've heard lots of bad things!

Feb 21st, 2003 21:10
Brian Coogan,

No!  In general, djbdns works a little differently from Bind, and once 
the differences are understood, djbdns is actually easier to work 
with and more stable than Bind.  This is the experience of many people 
who actually run djbdns installations in real life in some very large 
installations.
It is also more secure, having been designed to include strong 
security from the ground up.  Djbdns has never been penetrated (see 
author's $500 guarantee).
Djbdns implements all the necessary standards in a sensible and 
compatible manner, despite occasional contrary assertions (usually 
from people not familiar with djbdns).  See the other FAQTS answers 
for more detail.
I suspect some, if not most, of the opposition to djbdns has arisen 
out of the author's in-your-face style in certain forums on the 
internet in the past.  Apart from a general lack of tact, he tends to 
take a stand on issues which are not always popular; and to top it 
off, he's more often right than not, which can make a person even more 
infuriating :)  And of course, tact is not necessary for one to 
develop brilliant software, though it can impede it's adoption.  The 
style of licencing used is also unusual, though in practice it makes 
little difference to your usage rights -- my personal opinion is that 
the reason for the difference lies in the security guarantee, and that 
the difference in licence could be read as an effort to insure the 
quality of the software remains high rather than in an effort to be 
difficult or different.
For a factual rebuttal of some of the misunderstandings that have 
arisen in the past, please see:
   http://tinyurl.com/2aek   also known as:
   http://homepages.tesco.net./~J.deBoynePollard/FGA/djbdns-myths-
dispelled.html