Re: Fwd: Re: [Opencd-devel] Source

[<j_a...@ya...>]

> several good reasons.  The remaining disagrement is
> a minor one.  I see
> 3 options:
> 
> 1)  We simply link places where the source can be
> obtained, from the CD
> and from our web page
> 
> 2)  We store the source at our own web site in
> individual zip files, one
> for each app, and link to these.
> 
> 3)  We can do 1., 2. and make an ISO with these
> source files, so that
> people can burn it and distribute it easily.

I vote for 3, for the following reasons:

1. People who do not know much about open source
software may simply gloss over the fact that the
source is freely available if a link is provided. Even
if they're curious about it, they're not going to
bother downloading the source to OpenOffice unless
they have access to a fast internet connection (only
10% of the UK), and if they have a fast internet
connection they've probably heard of the Open Source
movement already.


2. It means that people who are not using Windows can
compile the source and run the software. I know I've
been going on about this a lot, but I think that it's
very important. It means that we can hand the CD(s) to
anyone, no matter their platform or expertise (well,
kind of), and they can still use it. Also, see my
point about people not having broadband. The UK is way
behind nearly every other country in providing
broadband. There are a lot of people who simply do not
have the patience to download 750MB of source to
play with.


3. It has the advantage over Henrik's point 2) above,
that it's so much easier to maintain a mirror of it!
As I mentioned on the OpenCD board before it died, the
computer society at St Andrews
(http://wired.st-and.ac.uk/) can host an ISO or two
for the benefit of the Open Source community, but we
don't want to spend too much time maintaining it.


4. It's really not that hard to do. :) The hardest
part is finding storage space.


Anyway, that's my input.

--jaa

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