[NTLUG:Discuss] VA Linux Systems Eggs In Basket

[Christopher Browne]

On Tue, 22 Aug 2000 20:17:44 CDT, the world broke into rejoicing as
Steve Baker <sjbaker1 at airmail.net>  said:
> Rick Cook wrote:
> 
> > As some of you may already know, the North Texas Linux Users Group was
> > fortunate enough (through the efforts of Kendall Clark) to have VA Linux
> > Systems donate a VARstation to the group.
> 
> Wow!  Those guys sure are generous with their stuff.  What with the entire
> SourceForge setup, Slashdot, FreshMeat, HappyPenguin - and a SIGNIFICANT
> number of the mailing lists I subscribe to are on their servers.
> 
> They also host HUGE number of OpenSource projects - including some very
> significant ones like Mesa and DRI (which is now almost exclusively run by
> VALinux employees) - and some insignificant ones (like *all* of mine).
> 
> ...I sure hope the Linux community aren't putting all their eggs into
> one basket!  If VA were to get into some kind of trouble, it could be
> a pretty major disaster.  I sure hope Microsoft don't think of that!

Consider that they _donated_ the VARstation, so if a large meteoroid
were to strike their block in the Silly Valley, "our" server would be
left unaffected.

Beyond that, _lots_ of people are mirroring the stuff at FreshMeat,
which means that while some coordination could disappear for a while,
that meteor would _not_ be a global disaster in that regard.

As for the huge number of CVS archives maintained at SourceForge, this
indicates that people that _use_ particular CVS archives should probably
_mirror_ them.  Which again means that while the "meteor" would cause
significant irritation for a while, it would _not_ mean the loss of
the code.

There might be some merit to opening up a "SourceForge Mirroring Project"
whereby an off-site "registry" of mirrors would be set up so that if
Disaster Should Strike, there would be a way of coordinating access
to mirrors.

At any rate, add all of the above together to see that _serious_ 
disaster is not too unlikely.

Contrast this with the LinuxCare situation; they effectively _failed_
as a business.  While this means that some of the planned software
projects were lost, the SAMBA folk they hired are still working on SAMBA.
[And, being sarcastic for a moment, the "business plan" appeared _NOT_
to involve any "free software," but rather the _appearance_ of creating
free software combined with Oodles Of Money coming in due to the IPO...]
--
cbbrowne at acm.org - <http://www.hex.net/~cbbrowne/>
ALT ALT to you too!