Re: Funds

["Christian T. Steigies" <cts@debian.org>]

On Sat, May 25, 2013 at 11:27:38PM +0000, Thorsten Glaser wrote:
> Ingo Jürgensmann dixit:
> 
> >Another possible way to spent some money could be to buy some stuff
> >the m68k port could need, like SCSI<>SATA adaptors or NICs or so.
> 
> I think hardware (both base computers, as I don???t recall seeing a
> Macintosh, only Atari (VM and real) and Amiga, here recently, other
> than what Finn does upstream and in Gentoo) and hardware extensions
> (RAM, NIC, HDD, oh and did I mention RAM) stuff is the thing that
> could help the best ??? assuming you find someone who???d accept them,
> turn them into actual hardware pieces and host/run them.
> 
> I don???t know whether anyone???s personal time investion into the
> Debian/m68k port can be raised with money (but I guess not), and
> organising a hackathon-like thing is probably beyond the scope
> of trivial donations as you consider travel, accomodation, etc.
> (no idea whether we could actually benefit from one, either; it
> would need careful planning).
> 
> So I???d suggest those who are already hosting our buildds to speak
> up whether they can accept more pieces of hardware, especially
> (but probably not limited to) mac68k-related (or money to buy those
> pieces or have them built) and operate them.

I see three problems for the m68k port:
motivation (thank you for offering help, its good hear that somebody can
actually make use of our efforts), time (no, I don't think anybody could pay
for all the hours, but we could probably use more hands!), and only then
hardware/money. Yes, getting hardware for m68k is not always easy/cheap. I
am not planning on getting more m68k hardware, I have too many boxes
already. I am interested in spare parts or replacement solutions (I recently
bought a mouse adapter, so now I can connect PS/2 mice to my Amiga! I am
still looking for something similar for keyboards that also works in Linux).
Harddisks (I need some IDE disks until we have new SCSI drivers) and RAM
(all boxes have full memory, but if something breaks...) could be useful,
but you don't get anything new anymore (except for CF/SD-IDE converters or
maybe IDE SSDs). I do not want more m68k boxes as I do not plan to run three
or more buildds at home anyhow, electricity is not cheap here, and I did
notice it on my bill when I was running an Amiga, an Atari and a Mac 24/7.
After I have unpacked all boxes I want to set them all up so that I can
easily power them on without switching any monitor and network cables, but I
will run only one or two at a time (and crest&kullervo will move back to
Hamburg once the segfault problem has been solved and we have SCSI drivers,
so that they can run stable again).

A hackthon sounds interesting (although there is a problem with the name?). 
A few years ago we had a meeting here.  I am sure I can get a seminar room
at the University again during a weekend, and I have more space at home now,
so maybe we would not have to sleep at the University.  There was not too
much coding IIRC, things are so slow on m68k, but it was good to get the
major players together, and I think Debian even paid for Stephens ticket.
I met several people for the first time, and even though we did not revive
m68k (or coldfire) immediately, I still think this was a good event. We
should coordinate with Michaels travel plans, and next time also Geert has
to come! Some people joined by Video, but I think in-person meetings are
very beneficial. Maybe some time after debconf? Or _at_ debconf? I am not
sure what people are doing there, so...

Christian