[csw-users] Blastwave in trouble?

[dave-blastwave at overbearing.org]

Dear BlastWave users,

The service BlastWave provides is terrific and it would be very sad if Mr. Clarke has to fold the project.

I have a few questions  about blastwave and I was wondering if anybody could answer them?

Where is the source code for these excellent packages?  I used the apache2 package and found it to be A terrific build, but I wanted to make some small changes to the build flags.  It looks like the link I followed to get the binaries:

http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/packages/solaris/csw/

doesn't have a subdirectory with a name like source or src.  In contrast sunfreeware puts the source in the tree:

http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/packages/solaris/freeware/SOURCES/


The license on most of this software does require that the source be downloadable from the same place you got the binaries.
If someone could point me to the right directory to get  the source code I would be much obliged.

What exactly is the nature of the financial drain that BlastWave is having?  Is it lack of administrative time? If so I might be willing to offer a few hours a month of volunteer administration. Is it the expense of web hosting?  What is the required bandwidth?  I might be in a position to colo a box or two for free if the site is being overloaded. If equipment is needed, what kind and how much?

Has anyone looked at NetBSD pkgsrc?  This is an excellent resource that has managed to build 1618 packages on Solaris, albeit not as well integrated as the Blastwave packages:

ftp://ftp0.mh.bbc.co.uk/pub/pkgsrc/pkgstat/20041202.2358/broken.html

It struck me that it might be possible to use the pkgsrc builds as a base for .pkg format packages.

How are you managing dependencies with existing Sun packages?  The Apache I installed from CSW did not check that an existing apache supplied by sun was already installed.  Is there a method to the merge the dependency databases from Blastwave and  pkginfo?  If not what would be required to make this happen?

Keep up the excellent work guys, and good luck!

Regards,
-David Wilson


On Fri, 3 Dec 2004, James Lee wrote:


> Date: Fri, 03 Dec 2004 14:45:38 GMT
> From: James Lee <james at blastwave.org>
> Reply-To: questions and discussions <users at lists.blastwave.org>
> To: questions and discussions <users at lists.blastwave.org>
> Subject: Re: [csw-users] Blastwave in trouble?
>
> On 26/11/04, 21:44:06, Robert Stampfli <res at colnet.cmhnet.org> wrote
> regarding [csw-users] Blastwave in trouble?:
>
> > The following post has created quite a flutter of comments in
> > the newsgroup comp.unix.solaris.  Can someone from blastwave
> > comment?  What can we do to help?
>
> You might not have been aware of the level of personal financial
> support that Dennis Clarke has put into the Blastwave project.
> This is not fair nor sustainable and the fact is Dennis has an
> immediate cash crisis.
>
>
> Consider the worth of Blastwave to you and make a donation.  You
> have benefited from the services that Blastwave has given to you.
> Just $10[1] from 1000 users[2] is $10,000.
>
> If you use Blastwave at work make a donation in proportion to your
> business.  Consider the time and money you have saved and pass some
> of that back to Blastwave.  If only 100 businesses gave $100 that
> would be another $10,000.
>
> Make sure your contacts are aware of this and ask them to donate.
> Tell your boss, colleagues and fellow Solaris users to chip in.
>
>
> Hopefully funding can be found in the future but there will be no
> future unless you act now and showing your support through a
> donation is probably the best way of impressing potential commercial
> partners.
>
>
> James Lee.
>
>
>
> Notes:
>
> [1] Look up the prices of any piece of software like MSWord, Abobe
> Acrobat or Photoshop and donate more than $10 to Blastwave.
>
> [2] November web site stats shows 16,700 "sites" and 28,000 "visits".
> The ibiblio.org mirror alone averages 7600 package downloads daily.
> We know users are out there.
> _______________________________________________
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> users at lists.blastwave.org
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>