Thanks Jeff...although I recognize that you are not speaking formally for the excutive, I will accept it as such, so as not to great a bunch of useless discussion e-mails on the issue.
Thread closed! :-)
Jeffrey Clement wrote:
Cameron,
Thank you for your offer. However I'm not sure what CLUG needs is a new
server. Currently it's being hosted on my old K62/550. Our traffic is
hovering around 400 hits per day which is far from making a dent in this
machine (and this is a pretty old machine). We have ample disk space
for whatever we need to store. The mailing list also does not use
significant resources on this machine. So purchasing a new server is
probably not the best use of our funds. In the future perhaps although
maybe just a simple commercial hosting package may be more appropriate
still.
As for the library. I certainly am happy to post CLUG related slides / meeting notes / whatever to the website however I don't think mirroring software or distros is worth doing or even doable. Currently the CLUG website is hosted off a Telus commercial DSL package. I think at most the outside world can suck files off it at about 200k/s while the original sources for this software often are much faster and more reliable. Also keeping mirrors means someone should make sure they are up-to-date so that people aren't downloading 2mo old security hole riddled software.
And of course the big reason against the digital library with software / distro archives is bandwidth. Disk space is dirt cheap but bandwidth is not. I've got 11GB / mo to use and I usually am pretty darn close. My connection certainly can not handle people pulling 600M ISOs from it nor too many other personal connections. If we had a business on a big pipe offer to host for us maybe that would be a different matter but I would doubt to many would be willing to incur that cost.
With the mirrors the sourceforge now has and services like Linux ISO I think getting software and ISOs is fast and reliable enough that a CLUG mirror probably isn't going to be of too much help to anyone anyways (with the exception of new releases of RH and Mandrake).
Again, thank you for the offer.
--- Disclaimer -------------------------------------------------------- These are just my thoughts on this not an executive ruling or anything. -----------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeff
On Tue, Aug 05, 2003 at 09:59:48PM -0600, Cameron Nikitiuk wrote:
Just a quick note to the executive.
I know there has been some talk about establishing a CLUG server in the past and I am not sure if anything else has been done since then. I do have a few ideas for it if I might.
I was thinking that perhaps instead of having a physical CLUG library that we could put it online and people could download from there. This could also work as a respository for monthly meeting related things (i.e. Programs mentioned during the presentations). Perhaps it could have the potential to evolve into a local mirror for downloads or could look at hosting a few local projects. I guess in a way it would almost be similar t /.
With that in mind I would like to make the following offer. I have a staff shopping day coming up at work in which I get a 10% discount on electronics and a 15% discount on office supplies. This offer IS NOT...I REPEAT IS NOT open to individual members but to the entity CLUG for a purchase they may need. I had a situation happen recently with a family member and got in crap from my GM. I also had a situation where a CLUG member came in and asked for a discount because he said he knew me. I would have to be present for the purchase and would need the money in advance as I can not afford to bank roll a purchase.
I do get a regular discount for office supplies and would be more than happy to pick things up for CLUG if you wish but I would need to reimbursed pretty close to the purchase time. Again...offer good to CLUG only and NOT to individual members. If anyone comes in asking for a discount I can get in big poo.
If there are any needs I can help out with, any executive members are welcome to contact me offline.
Cameron
