| so what happened to 'oskits.zk3.dec.com'. I also used it
to get patch kits, to access older versions of DU
and to access the postscript version of
the documentation. So if we transition to www-based stuff, could please
someone make sure that all the things we need to help achieve our daily
work are put in place. 'oskits' literally for years was a perfect resource
for me and now it's gone and replaced with something much less usefull to
me (in its current state). Also copying patches from 'guru' are not a
good alternative since i'm either copying from a NT or a DU system of
which both have no DECnet installed.
So please (whoever has the power) try to provide either the following:
a) continued ftp access to:
1) DU kits (both released and FT) incl. AP
2) patch kits
3) postscript docs
b) beef up Webkits to contain:
1) DU kits (-including FT kits which we CAN access as before from oskits)
(-older versions of DU as well, 'oskits' was worth gold in this respect)
2) patch kits
3) postscript docs
thanks & rgds
-matthias
--------------------------------------------------
Matthias Dolder, DTN 760-2375, Digital Switzerland
UNIX Ambassador
Mail: [email protected]
|
| >so what happened to 'oskits.zk3.dec.com'
oskits was disconnected from the network and physically dismantled. It
was a DECstation 5000/200 and has been replaced by webkits which is a
DEC 3000 (sandpiper) workstation. We no longer provide access to
software via anonymous FTP on any machine. All downloads must occur
through the web interface via http://webkits.zk3.dec.com or
http://reng.zk3.dec.com
Note 382.3 provides some details that describe why we chose this
method.
>could please someone make sure that all the things we need to help
>achieve our daily work are put in place.
Webkits actually provides more opportunity for us to continue serving
older software than oskits ever did. The reason is that oskits served
it's software off of physical CDROMS and had only 6 cd drives. This
meant we could only ever offer 6 products at once. The new webkits
method delivers bits directly from a hard drive and we have greater
capacity available for more than 6 products. However, we do not
necessarily want to keep older software versions on the system taking
up space 'just because'. Our overall philosophy is to serve software
that is not yet available via SSB ordering. Once a product officially
is available from SSB, we mark that software as a candidate for removal
from the webkits system. However, if you believe you have valid
business reasons that prevent you from ordering a product from SSB,
and needs that justify keeping older versions of software available
via webkits, please document them and let us know. We have copies of
all software and can easily put the images in place for download. We
just need to know WHAT software products you need. (I know you've
detailed some of those in your note)
>Also copying patches from 'guru' are not a good alternative since
>i'm either copying from a NT or a DU system of which both have no
>DECnet installed.
Please be aware that we, DIGITAL UNIX Release Engineering, only have
influence on the BASE operating system and Associate products, for the
most part. We are more than willing to investigate the use of our
server for distributing patch kits and postscript docs, but we have
no authority to do so because they are products that are not within our
direct control.
>So please (whoever has the power) try to provide either the following:
>a) continued ftp access to:
This will no longer be possible. A decision was made, at the request
of the development project teams, to ensure that some products could
be distributed in a restrictive manner. In other words, distribution
of early baselevels (for example) to a limited number of people. The
method of retrieval (ftp vs http) really is secondary to the request
for limited distribution, and management has agreed to support changing
our unrestricted download environment to a restricted model. HTTP was
chosen over FTP because of faster transfer rates and easier
maintanance.
>b) beef up Webkits to contain:
> 1) DU kits (-including FT kits which we CAN access as before
> from oskits)
> (-older versions of DU as well, 'oskits' was worth gold
> in this r
All current DIGITAL UNIX software products that are being developed,
are available via webkits. If it doesn't appear on webkits, it hasn't
been built yet.
Software products that have been released to SSB will be distributed
via webkits upon request and accompanying business reasons for the
request. Not because we want to cause you more work, but because we
still have limited resources and will need to determine what effect
your request places on our resources. There may also be business
reasons on our end that would prevent us from accomodating the request.
Jon Wallace
WEBKITS Project Leader
|