On Sat, 14 Jun 2003 14:55, you wrote: > I thought the idea of an installfest was that it was free. The installfests out at the 'Varsity have been 100% sponsored by the ever generous taxpayers of NZ, because the CLUG has installed Linux on to Comp. Sci. students' machines as a quid pro quo with the Department. Unfortunately that qpq is not available to us this time around.
> Now $20 aint much but I can always give Gentoo a nudge on my own > (or with 1 on 1 help) for free and it would be both quicker and more > productive IMHO, With all due respect etc., almost certainly not, because you would have neither the latest source files for many of the applications available from just across a 100MHz Ethernet, nor the availablility of a cluster of pretty powerful machines upon which to compile your custom kernel etc., etc. Getting an up-tp-date Gentoo Linux running on the kind of hardware you own ( a P2/300 iirc ), on your own, would take _days_, maybe even over a week. Doing it this way means that you will probably/hopefully go home with a nice shiny Gentoo that very evening. > but it would lack the social aspect (which would be enjoyable). Indeed. > Just some thoughts on location selection and cost... My main reason for suggesting that a $20 charge is fair for those with a commercial income is that the OSTC financials are in such a parlous state that it will drop off this mortal coil unless it gets a bob or two in the kitty pdq. This Gentoo Installfest idea might be a win-win situation for the folks who get new Gentoo Linux Installations and for the OSTC. If $20 is too much then lets settle for $10. Perhaps the OSTC is neither wanted nor desirable, and should die? Seriously, with your commercial nous and experience, what would you do with it? > > Cheers > > Jason > > Gareth Williams wrote: > > I have a Knoppix 3.2 CD here... and it has distcc 1.1 and gcc 3.2.3 (as > > someone else posted I think?). I have a suspicion that maybe this would > > be close enough? Is it at least worth a try before messing around with > > livecd-ng? IMHO Knoppix hardware detection is second to none (just 10 > > minutes ago it fixed a faulty CD-ROM drive I was giving up hope of ever > > working properly - stuck in a Knoppix CD and it just goes, lol). If we > > use Knoppix, I think there is more chance it will work on all the > > different (and weird) machines people bring... comments? > > > > Secondly, the matter of the charge. $20 seems a bit much to a poor > > student like me, but if you set the charge at less for people who just > > bring a machine to help with compiling, then I will do that, and just not > > bring the machine I was thinking of installing on. I'm not too bothered > > whether I get gentoo or not, after all I'm sure I'd have no trouble > > installing it myself at home. For me, the real value of this is the > > social aspect (if you call sitting in a room with a bunch of other geeks > > social, heh ;-) , and to see something cool (distcc. an installfest where > > all the machines help each other, woohoo). What I'm saying is that even > > if you guys were setting up a mosix cluster and intending to use it to > > calculate PI to a billion decimal places, I'd still come ;-) > > So this then raises the question, should we in fact charge any less for > > people who aren't getting installs? If others are like me (which of > > course they aren't, necessarily) and get the same utility from both > > (installing or not installing), then perhaps we should have one fee for > > everyone? > > > > Thirdly, I once heard the OSTC described as being little larger than a > > corridor - is the correct? (I've never been there). If so then it may not > > be ideal... > > I would even offer to have it at my place (ie. therefore no charges for > > anyone) - we have gaming LANs here sometimes, and I know for a fact that > > if stretched we can fit 9 people + machines in the house, and another 9 > > in the garage (yes, we have done it before ;-) ... with a long bit of > > cat5 between the two. But that's also less than ideal ;-) > > > > I don't want to undermine the effort to support the OSTC, and indeed if > > it is a suitable venue, then I think we should hold it there. However, my > > personal feeling is that the standard $10 per person fee would be about > > right. Of course ultimately it's up to David, he has the right to set the > > fee at whatever he likes. So I would like to hear some comments from him > > on the matter. > > > > Cheers, > > Gareth > > > > On Saturday 14 June 2003 11:13, Nick Rout wrote: > >>I am fiddling with the gentoo package livecd-ng which is supposed to be > >>able to create a custom boot cd with arbitrary packages included (ie > >>distcc). I can see now why it is in the "unstable" branch of gentoo - it > >>doesn't work"out of the box", but I seem to be getting somewhere with > >>some help from forums.gentoo.org. Will report back later. > >> > >>If this works we should be able to boot all the distcc server machines > >>off identical cd's and there should be no problems with gcc or library > >>version differences. > >> > >>N -- C. S.
