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Date:      Sat, 08 Feb 1997 18:10:11 -0600
From:      Allen Hyer <allenh@wtrt.net>
To:        dean@av8.com (Dean Anderson), Snob Art Genre <ben@narcissus.ml.org>, Alec Kloss <alec@d2si.com>
Cc:        pantzer@ludd.luth.se, dean@oec.com, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: FTP site
Message-ID:  <3.0.1.32.19970208181011.00759fb8@wtrt.net>
In-Reply-To: <v02130509af229cd5ffae@[198.3.138.121]>

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At 05:14 PM 2/8/97 -0400, Dean Anderson wrote:
>At 4:10 PM 2/7/97, Snob Art Genre wrote:
>>On Fri, 7 Feb 1997, Alec Kloss wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Well, what bit you this morning?  I agree that the FreeBSD
>>> ftp site departs from traditional ftp sites in a few ways.
>>> However, this does not make it "broken", just different.
>>
>>Really . . . you'd think he was paying for it or something.  Not to
>>mention -- how many of us have, on our own time, read this guy's email and
>>taken the time to respond helpfully?  If he doesn't like the freebsd ftp
>>site perhaps he just shouldn't use it.
>
>I wouldn't use it if you weren't falsely advertising to have software you
>don't have.  That's what "bit" me.
>
>Don't you think you are a bit unethical to claim to have a package you
>don't really have?

I don't know how all this got started, but how can an FTP site "claim" to
have anything?  Are you saying that everytime you do a search on the 'net,
that every single response you receive is relevant to the subject you
requested?  Come on man, get real.  This has been a big waste of time and
bandwidth for this discussion.  If you don't care for the FTP site, don't
use it.  Mentally file away those addresses so anytime a search returns
them, you know not to use them.  Those of us that use FreeBSD find the FTP
site extremely useful.  Please don't come in here telling us how "broken"
it is.  The ports package is very well "advertised" in FreeBSD's
documentation, and never does it claim that the ports contain the entire
source.  In fact, it "advertises" the exact opposite, stating the ports are
merely diffs to be applied against the original.  Thus saving valuable
space on the FTP site (or, more to the point, the CD-ROM that FreeBSD ships
on).  The ports package is exactly what it claims to be.  If you are
looking for full sources, don't look in the ports.  End of story.

This reminds me of a customer I had once.  We had a link to the Texas
Lottery Commission on our web page.  He called us complaining that we don't
post the winning numbers fast enough on "our" web page.  He went on to rant
that if we were going to do something, "why don't we do it right!"  Well,
obviously we don't control the Texas Lottery Commission's web page.  Yes,
there is a difference, as the FreeBSD team controls the structure of the
FTP site.  But, I think you can see the similarity.

Allen Hyer
System Administrator
West Texas Rural Telephone



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