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Re: pseudo-images



OK, for the last time now: wrap your lines. I'm sick of seeing three lines
of mail in pine that later turn out to be more like nine. 

> I would just like to express an opinion.  Whether you agree or not
> please feel free to respond...to the list. What is the deal with
> pseudo-images?!  Someone with considerable technical skill spent the
> time and effort to re-invent the wheel!  What is wrong with just

Please keep this rant off debian-68k and to debian-cd. The reason for
having the pseudo image kit (and for making you jump through a small
number of hoops before you're told the location of the ISO images) is
simple: most mirrors carry the distribution, few carry the ISO images.
Plus: updates to the distribution work gradually for those mirrors that
already did mirror the unstable section whereas the ISO needs to be
downloaded in one chunk. High load on the few ISO mirrors just after
relase is the consequence. Generic waste of bandwidth is another problem
but bandwidth just exists these days (and I can't really complain,
downloading the potato test image just to check if there's a HFS partition
on it).

> posting the #%@$&* .iso image?!  1 file to download and burn.  I have

Multiply this by x number of people, all rushing to download the image on
the day the release is announced, from ftp.debian.org instead for figuring
out which of the nearby mirrors have it. This wasn't just some silly idea
cooked up to inconvenience the users for no apparent reason, it's been
implemented in response to the main FTP servers crashing and burning on
the first days following each Debian release so far, up to slink. The
'be-the-first-one-on-your-block' effect, apparently. 

If it helps to reduce the number of these mee-too requests to a manageable
number, fine. Did I mention that it pays off to be a bit creative in
answering the questions on the main CD page? I've always been able to
click right through to the ISO images with only little headache. 

Using rsync instead of FTP to distribute the images would also help a lot,
even more for people that follow the test releases or want to update from
r1 to r5. 

> made numerous attempts to run this make-pseudo-image script.  I have
> to sit and monitor the process because for EVERY file I have to hit
> [Cancel] 3-4 times because Sh has created a kernel fault in
> winbloze98.  I have all the directories and filenames correct.  Then

I feel sorry for you, but no one I know of ever claimed Windoof was the
most stable OS for that purpose. If you need the ISO images, go get them.
I repeat that it's a bad idea for anyone who can either get a CD from a
vendor or using the pseudo-image kit but you were unable to use the kit,
so feel justified to download the image. 

	Michael



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