Rodney M Dyer wrote: > At 12:13 PM 4/7/2006, Sergio Gelato wrote: >> I don't think Rodney was asking for binaries here. I wonder whether he >> has noticed that the CVS web interface lets one look up individual >> "deltas"? > > Yes, I was "replied to" on that very subject last night. It isn't quite > as nice as going to "downloads" and looking for the patches for a > "released production version", however it does work. But then it > requires the end user to basically end up being a developer. Who has > the time, money, or capacity to load up a compile environment for a > source patch other than developers? But I can sympathize with the fact > that OpenAFS.org is a loose knit band of open source coders who believe > in the future of AFS and that the capacity to make things super easy for > the end user isn't always available. I do however believe that for AFS > to survive and prosper issues such as these need to be ironed out. High > level managers these days seem to be geared to purchasing solutions > rather than "in-house" projects. It is really getting bad as the bean > counters can't seem to count the value proposition of open source. In > open source projects there is little to compute other than salaries, and > we all know that a salary is a "recurring cost", not a "one-time-cost". > Most managers would rather spend $40K on a "solution" one time, than > spend $60K on a recurring cost warm body. > > Rodney
Except that purchasing software with maintenance is not a one time cost; it is a recurring cost. Its fine for management to want to outsource work and purchase off the shelf solutions. If they want to be able to download new binaries every time a bug is found and fixed in OpenAFS and they want to be sure that the code has been tested, then they are going to have to be willing to pay for the "warm bodies" and infrastructure that can make that possible. As you are aware, these are services that Sine Nomine Associates and Secure Endpoints Inc. provides. They cost money but the benefit of having them is that when you do experience a problem you can get someone knowledgeable to figure out which patches you require, write them if necessary, and provide you a binary to install. Of course, all of the patches are also in the cvs repository and periodically releases are made off of both the stable branch and the unstable development branch. In the case of MacOS X and Microsoft Windows, binaries are provided for each and every release because we assume that the majority of end users will not have easy access to development tools. This is considered less of an issue for UNIX/Linux administrators who are expected to be clueful. Jeffrey Altman
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