GNU/Linux

[locustfurnace]

OldVersion.com hosts only Windows Free & Shareware apps. Hosting any other apps, such as those for GNU/Linux is currently handled by many sites presently.
The problem with hosting GNU/LINUX or any *nix app is the many different formats available for files, such as the Red Hat rpm, the SuSE's rpm format, Debian's .deb, LNX-BBC's .gar, Stampede's .slp, Caldera OpenLinux's rpm, Mandrake's .mdk.rpm, Slackware's tbz or tgz (which differ from standard tgz and tbz's), then you have tar.gz, tar.bz2 and then src.rpm, tar.bz2 sources and tar.gz sources. Thats just too many different types of packages to host, If you start hosting 1 type, someone will suggest hosting another format.
Plus, the binaries are updated so quickly that you will be spending alot of time keeping track of updates.
and due to the licensing of each package, you could run into trouble hosting them with freeware or sahreware apps.
Lets not even begin to talk about the problem of dependencies.
If a user downloads a package and doesnt have the necessary dependencies, is Oldversion to also host these?

Then what happens when someone wants to see *BSD packages hosted? What about Solaris or Darwin or HURD or Apple or BeOS or QNX or Syllable........
Which architecture should you limit yourself to also, i386, Sparc, PPC, m68k..

This question has been asked in the past, you can check here for links to sites which host ISO's and binaries for GNU/LINUX
http://www.oldversion.com/talk/index.php?a...&f=3&t=1080&hl=

[da.phreak]

What else can I say than OK ?

Well, I didn't mean to host every and any old linux version around, that would be quite hard to update. Getting old versions of Linux-programs is usually quite easy anyway, because the developers offer them. Only big companies like Acrobat or real.com only offer the latest version. Also, big companies usually offer only 2 versions, rpm and executable for other distros than redhat. This wouldn't be very hard, but if you don't want, well ... it's your choice.

[locustfurnace]

Originally posted by da.phreak@Jan 14 2004, 03:47 PM
Well, I didn't mean to host every and any old linux version around, that would be quite hard to update.* This wouldn't be very hard, but if you don't want, well ... it's your choice.

Right, I understand that, But making space for a couple apps, will then have another poster saying, why not host this or that app. So you can't host everything someone makes suggestions too, even if the idea is a good one.
As you will notice there are no DOS apps on this site, or old games. OldVersion just hosts Windows applications.
At some point you have to decide where to draw the line on what OS you will only cater to, and then of that which apps you only will host.

You can find all older UNiX, Mac, OS2 and Win versions of Acrobat Reader here
ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/acrobatreader/

[Ropetin]

I was just clicking through a few of my old favourites and I can across this site again. Ahh the memories, many is the time that oldversion.com has saved me from having to install the newest spyware filled, bug ridden, try-before-you buy version of some piece of software or other. For that I give you my eternal thanks.

As I'm sure a lot of (semi) tech-savvy computer users have these days I have moved, in part at least, to Linux. It struck me then that maybe there is a need for a linuxoldversion.com website. Upgrades Linux software tends to be a positive thing rather than negative as seen more and more in the Windows world. Older version though still might be useful, for lower spec or legacy hardware machines for instance.

I would be interested in running such a site either in conjunction with oldversion.com or as a stand alone (but closely linked) project. Let me know if you think this would be worthwhile and if there is any interest within this group.

Thanks,
Ropetin.

[locustfurnace]

A previous related posting;
http://www.oldversion.com/talk/index.php?a...t=1784&hl=linux
http://www.oldversion.com/talk/index.php?a...&f=3&t=1080&hl=
http://www.oldversion.com/talk/index.php?a...T&f=3&t=915&hl=

Since your not asking the same exact thing as the previous poster, some additonal info might be necesary to include.
Remember that hosting a single iso image of an older version of GNU/Linux requires that ALL source code MUST be included on the same site. So this means or every 1 distro, you will need to host 2 files, the main installation cd, and the source code CD.
Another thing that you might rem also is that just because Linux and the GPL software are free does not mean it permits free redistribution, as SuSE/Novell might not permit some older version to be hosted as their installer is copyrighted.
Lets not forget the legal implication currently underway with SCO versus GNU/Linux. If this case turns out good for SCO, you would then need to license the software, as last time I checked it was roughly $1,399+ per CPU.
Recently SCO has sued some big companys for millions of dollars for running GNU/Linux software.
So you should look into this and keep track of the case.

Also, there already exists several large hosting sites which offer older GNU/Linux distros, as well as GNU/LGPL/GPL..etc software

If you only want to host GNU software, thats also a good thing in part, but alot of the older software will not work with newer libs. and then there is the dependency problem of hosting 1 file which depends on a chain of other older software. You would definitely need to test out what your hosting to atleast make sure you also hosting as many of the necessary deps as possible, otherwise hosting the old software without the deps wont do much good for most people.

If you have a good collection of software to start out with, that helps alot. I have also kept all downloads and their deps for whatever distro at the time I was runing.
If you plan to host any, you might want to host source code only, as it would be simpler, and much more easier to adapt to the varying distros than to pick and only try to host .rpm's or just .debs.
A benefit to hosting just source code would be less redundant files needing to be hosted, if you hosted pre-compiled binarys like rpm's, then you would also have to host the .src-rpm as well.
And another would be that alot of the older source code could be compiled for GNU/Linux and possibly other's, such as *BSD, Mac, Solaris, and other UNIX-like OS's, and quite possibly be made run on MS Windows under cygwin.

[neognomic]

I was pretty much in shock when I saw the title of this post. I have been running with Linux for years and initially thought 'what's the point' but you are correct that there may be some people who could use such a service.

The thing is that it exists, already, under a different name. Certainly you must have heard of http://rpmfind.net/ by now? If not, please take a gander at it. There are gazillions of old and new files,,, okay, not GAZILLIONS, , but I would venture hundreds of thousands of RPMS. I have found files there that go back when linux was just barely even "Linux". Rufus hosts them anyway because the CODE is licensed as free, GPL, BSD or some other, basically, free license and somebody might want to "start with a wheel", so to speak, to build a project.

If you have trouble getting to the US site there is a mirror at http://fr.rpmfind.net/linux/RPM/ also.

Rufus could use some more mirrors... (hint)

Oh, BTW, SCO is a NON-issue for hosting software. The suit is about the OS, not the software that runs on it.
( Besides, SCO is just trying to SCAM some money... it does not fly anymore than Penguins do.)

[locustfurnace]

Originally posted by neognomic@Mar 18 2004, 10:54 PM
Oh, BTW, SCO is a NON-issue for hosting software. The suit is about the OS, not the software that runs on it.

Right, the suit is about the kernel, "Linux". Which if you are hosting GNU/Linux distros, your hosting the kernel. If your hosting GNU Software, such as gcc, gmake, gawk and the like, that's not Linux (kernel) related, it is software which runs on GNU/Linux, ofcourse it would not be an issue of hosting GNU software. But the problem lies in hosting anything which would contain the kernel in question. such as any distros.

Linux is not an operating system, Linux is a kernel. GNU/Linux is the Operating System. You can replace the Linux (kernel) part of GNU/Linux with another kernel and make a new OS, called GNU/HURD. HURD being the replaced kernel.

SCO's lawsuit would fizzle out if the HURD kernel worked. Everyone would just replace linux with HURD and not have to worry about being sued.
SCO's claim is alot of FUD ofcourse, as they are just upset with no one wanting to license their Unixware.

If you do not want to be sued, just switch over to *BSD. Which has already been through the lawsuits with when AT&T still owned the UNIX IP (which SCO now owns) many years ago. AT&T did not win, things were changed, as well as the current SCO vs Linux suit will end up doing with the kernel.

rpmfind.net is a good site, if your use a .rpm based distros. otherwise you would want to host source files in tarballs.

[hi]

Program Name: Linux
Website: http://www.linux.com
Current version:9
Desired versions: anything
Description:an oberateing system like windows

[locustfurnace]

Originally posted by FAQS@ http://www.oldversion.com/faq.php
Do you only provide software for Windows?
Yes. We currently do not provide software for any other operating systems. We also do not provide versions in languages other than English.

Linux.com is not the site for Linux, It is http://kernel.org/.
The current version of Linux is 2.6.6, not 9.
A GNU/Linux distro might be 9, such as Fedora, or Slackware, or Mandrake, but not the kernel.
Linux is only a kernel, and not an OS.
This subject was discussed already in previous threads.
http://www.oldversion.com/talk/index.php?a...&f=3&t=1080&hl=
http://www.oldversion.com/talk/index.php?a...T&f=3&t=915&hl=

[David]

Would you have possiabley be getting linux hats off or something like that any time soon h34r: