Re: 3.6 arrived

[Ben Goren <ben_(_at_)_trumpetpower_(_dot_)_com>]

On 2004 Oct 18, at 9:55 AM, Michael Shalayeff wrote:

>> I, for one, would love to see some sort of mechanism that either
>> encouraged a donation be made in conjunction with FTP access, or
>> discouraged FTP access without a donation.
>
> then here is the first paragraph from goals.html:
>  Provide the best development platform possible.
>  Provide full source access to developers and users,
>  including the ability to look at CVS tree changes directly.
>  Users can even look at our source tree and changes directly on the 
> web!

Interesting you should quote goals.html. Nowhere does it mention FTP 
installs, but it does talk about access to the source (as you quoted) 
and CD sales:

     * Make a CDROM-based release approximately every
       six months, in  particular to fund the project...

FTP installs are eating into CD sales; that directly conflicts with one 
of the goals.

> how you gonna achieve just that w/ your approach?
> next what? you gonna charge users for bandwidth for
> downloading snapshots or even better mirroring cvs repo?

Nice straw man. The problem isn't with CVS; anybody who uses CVS knows 
they should be buying CDs or donating. The problem isn't with 
snapshots, either; people using snapshots are at the least donating 
their time by testing things--and they also know they should be buying 
CDs or donating.

The problem is with the increasing numbers of people who make use of 
the super-easy fast FTP install and never bother to buy a CD or make a 
donation. Do fast, easy FTP installs come at the expense of the 
hackathons? Is that the right trade to make?

Cheers,

b&

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