use of net.sources (rebuttal of large postings flame)

Dwight Ernest dwight at timeinc.UUCP
Wed Mar 27 23:24:52 AEST 1985


The most practical and sensical method for the distribution of
large sources to those who want it, without using postings to
net.sources, would seem to me to be that used by Oklahoma
State--post an L.sys uucp file entry to the net, with an
abstract of the software that's being made available, and let
those sites who wish to do so assume the cost of a direct
uucp link to the offering site. If necessary, for security
reasons, the offering site could permit, through uux, the
running of small shell procedure related to the uucp logon
that would simply uucp all of the related source code to
the calling system that's using the restricted logon.

The vehemence of the previous poster who said that those
without ARPA access are just left "out in the cold" without
any ability to get this public domain source code that's
being offered is simply NOT JUSTIFIED when you realize
that this pathway is available.

As someone who deals with limited budgets, I agree whoeheartedly
with Lauren's opinion that the posting of large source code
packages via general net posting is just not practical, since 
you are indeed posting all of the systems on the net to assume
the cost of this large posting and its associated communications
time. Let's just all realize that there are very practical
alternatives available through the use of the same kind of
imaginative thinking that got Usenet started in the first place,
and use these alternatives whenever possible.



More information about the Comp.unix mailing list