Same applies to Sarge.Another reason, as I've already said, is that a brown paper bag bug on a package that you got by FTP/HTTP will probably be fixed by the same FTP/HTTP in less than ten days. Using a CD, it will never be fixed unless somebody downloads yet another CD image.
And I think there are some bad packages which silently get into Sarge, because nobody uses them, or just ignore to fire a bug report.
I don't know who are we talking about. End users, Windows newcomers, Linux fans, Unix admins?Also, a CD gives the feeling of a "finished product", which is far from reality for a sid CD.
Those who use and understand Debian will know the difference between Sarge and SID.
The main benefit comes from the fact that woody has very old software and sarge is almost finished and it's very stable. The additional benefit that distributing sid CDs has over distributing only sarge images is marginal. The mere fact that people download sid CDs does
Maybe you are right.
not necessarily mean people benefit from them. The CDs might contain packages with very serious bugs, and people might well throw the CD to the bin immediately. You think you are helping by making the CDs available.
That's what rewritable media is for!
I not only think they don't help very much, I think sid CDs are harmless for the project.
That's what I think too :-D
And allowing it to reach people who has only good internet connectivity at work allows more people to test them.The packages need to be tested. Being them in unstable allow for people to test them. As you say, the "first time wannabe-linux-hacker
Allows. Not necessary means.
You can kill somebody with a knife, but also help you to survive in the jungle and eat some meat :)
who help us with the testing. Instead, very often he's the kind of user who complain to us about bugs which are already fixed, because by the time he burns the CD, lots of important bugs in unstable have been fixed.
Point him to the right FAQ entry.
I spend a lot of time maintaining our infrastructure and constantly seek for sponsors, etc.Oh, yes, it's very easy to say "blame the developers" when you are not the one who has to receive the bugs.
This is a little bit different like taking a source code and make a binary package from it, but I can assure you that I have also about 50-100 emails a day regarding the stuff we provide (also, I have some little packages, but not in Debian).
It's a hobby for me and I think to you. It's not a must which you have to do.
If you spend money and time to distribute them, that's another reason why I think you should consider stopping the distribution of sid CDs.
That's a little bit hard.
If everybody would think like you, there were no open source community.
Just for you, I grepped how many downloads were for woody in the same interval.Your figures speak by themselves: Only 7.7% of people who download CD images download a sid image, so by stopping the distribution of sid CDs, things will not be very different from now.
Just for the record: >>There were nearly 5000 SID and more than 60000 Sarge image downloads
Last week there were only 400 Woody downloads. Should I draw the consequences?
Hmm. On ftp.hu.debian.org Sarge has three times the hit rate for Packages.gz as Woody. Woody and SID are nearly equal (SID is bigger).
May I ask for the statistics of other mirrors?
1. I didn't read that FAQ (where is it?)I have a question for you: Why do you think the Debian FAQ says "please do not distribute CDs of unreleased software", and why do you think such thing does not apply to you?
2. FAQ was Frequently Asked Questions last time I checked and not a license agreement which I must agree if I read it.
3. mirrors, please stop distributing Sarge CDs.
4. should I continue?
5. OK, just one more: a SID CD is full of with released software. I don't think Debian has too much software without version number (from CVS for example)...
If I take a look at the number of packages in SID (enormous number) and the amount of work needed to correctly write and package it, I think a SID CD has a lot of manpower in it which was needed to actually create the software (I guess it's minimum 95, or more percents) and a minimal amount of time to make a .deb from it.
Look. Our foundation have a very low budget (my salary minus the regular expenses to maintain my life. Take your salary's 10%, because it's Hungary...), so it is possible that we will run out of diskspace in one of our servers and abandon those images. Those will be the first, I promise.This is of course not a matter of licensing, as the packages are all free software, but a matter of respect for a work which is not finished.
Or the server melts down, who knows. We are working with silly PCs...
So expect to see those images disappear sometimes this year (there will be no SID images under the tree :). Seriously.
BTW, I respect your work in Debian. You have very important packages, so please take care of them.
-- Attila Nagy e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Adopt a directory on our free software phone @work: +361 371 3536 server! http://www.fsn.hu/?f=brick cell.: +3630 306 6758
-- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
