From owner-freebsd-questions Tue May 30 18:38:50 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mail-ob.kamp.net (mail-ob.kamp.net [195.62.97.26]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3BF7237B67B for ; Tue, 30 May 2000 18:38:47 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from farid.hajji@ob.kamp.net) Received: from bsdevil.meta.net (port-15.d.kamp.de [195.62.120.207]) by mail-ob.kamp.net (8.10.1/8.10.1) with ESMTP id e4V1cB013494; Wed, 31 May 2000 03:38:28 +0200 Date: Wed, 31 May 2000 03:38:12 +0200 Message-Id: <200005310138.e4V1cB013494@mail-ob.kamp.net> From: Farid Hajji To: questions@FreeBSD.ORG, orders@cdrom.com Cc: so@server.i-clue.de In-reply-to: <393434B5.4C4D599B@i-clue.de> (message from Christoph Sold on Tue, 30 May 2000 23:37:57 +0200) Subject: Re: Missing FreeBSD-4.0 Distfiles on CDROM X-Mailer: Emacs 20.4.1 / FreeBSD 3.4 Reply-To: farid.hajji@ob.kamp.net References: <200005302044.e4UKih005571@mail-ob.kamp.net> <393434B5.4C4D599B@i-clue.de> Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Hello, > > I've just bought a FreeBSD 4.0-RELEASE (March 2000) CD-ROM Set > > and was _very_ disappointed, as I couldn't find any distfiles > > (sources), that go with /usr/ports! In previous releases (3.4-RELEASE > > and earlier), most distfiles were present on the CD Set. Are we > > now supposed to download package-sources directly off the 'Net? > Unfortunately: Yes and No. Due to space restrictions, distfiles dropped > off the 4.0-R-CD-ROMs (to make room for a lot more packages). > > Are the distfiles for the 4.0-RELEASE ports available on CD-ROM > > at all? (Which CD-ROM and where please?) > FreeBSD-Toolkit, still to be produced, AFAIK. Okay, I'll just order it now, but let's hope that there will be soon another way to get the distfiles on the regular cd-rom set. After all, FreeBSD's policy has always been to come with full sources, and that includes IMHO the sources of the packages too (as far as possible due to copyright restrictions). Considering the excellent nature of the /usr/ports system, it would have probably been much better to include the distfiles of all ports on the cd-roms, plus some binary packages that are extremely popular. sysinstall could have been expanded, so that (less requested) packages can be compiled from the distfiles. Isn't it always better to provide sources and an (automatic) way to compile them, than just binaries _w/o_ sources? > > Thank you for your help. > You're welcome. Yes, I'm missing the distfiles, too. Modems at home are > not helpful for getting distfiles, remote locations don't help, too. > Maybe BSDi thinks about another scheme to get the distfiles to the > people. Yes, that's the way I see it too. The main reason for buying the CD-ROMs is (besides helping WalnutCreek a.k.a. BSDI) saving the bandwidth and time required to fetch sources via modems. BSDI should really find a way to include the distfiles on the regular -RELEASE (and maybe -SNAP) CDs (be it by moving to a 6 CD-Case or replacing less used packages into distfiles, that can be compiled via sysinstall or manually from /usr/ports)! Maybe other subscribers could write independently to BSDI, to help them make their mind to distribute the distfiles along with the regular CDs. Even users with enough bandwidth can help keeping FreeBSD and associated software free. > -Christoph Sold Thank you very much to all who answered. -Farid. -- Farid Hajji Broicherdorfstr. 83, D-41564 Kaarst, Germany Phone: +49-2131-67-555, E-Mail: farid.hajji@ob.kamp.net To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message