Re: Default of send-mail-function (was: 23.0.60; Feature request: Menu item "load init files" after -q/-Q)

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> From: Reiner Steib <reinersteib+gmane@imap.cc>
> Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2008 23:05:49 +0200
> Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org
> 
> On GNU/Linux, send-mail-function typically defaults to
> send-mail-function. [1] I.e. the mail is feed to /usr/sbin/sendmail.
> /usr/sbin/sendmail typically exist on every GNU/Linux systems, however
> on today's end-user desktops, it's quite likely that it has not have
> been configured correctly.
> 
> On system-type darwin and windows-nt, send-mail-function defaults to
> mailclient-send-it which passes the mail to "the system's mail client"
> via a mailto-URL.

But it's not guaranteed that "the system's mail client" on Windows is
configured correctly, either.  You need at the very least to tell it
the name or address of your ISP's mail server; that isn't automatic.

For example, at home I have 4 users on an XP machine, only one of
which is configured to send and receive email via the standard Windows
mail client.  Another user (me) uses Emacs and smtp-mail (which also
needs a 3-line setup), and the other 2 users cannot send mail at all,
because the mail client wasn't set up for their accounts.

So I don't see how a Windows box is so very different from a GNU/Linux
system.  It needs email setup as well.