Re: [MiNT] MiNT - Made By Internet Distribution

[Mario Becroft <mb@tos.pl.net>]

On Fri, 21 May 1999, Guido Flohr wrote:

> My idea was to start some sort of "made by internet" MiNT distribution.
> This MBI distribution could make the core part of other distributions, if
> it ever evolves into a fully bootstrappable distribution, even better. If
> not, it's still extremely practical.

That sounds like an excellent proposal.

> This distribution should have a standardized directory structure so that
> we have a common base to work on.  It should also be a goal to package new

Would the FHS specification which Martin Eric Racine always talks about be
appropriate? I heard that he had already adapted some basic tools to
support that.

> I don't want to start another abstract discussion here.  If you think this
> is a good idea, please think of some way to realize it.  We don't have to
> scare the world with a huge MiNT server next month.  Some tiny grain of
> sand to initialize the condensation would already be great.  But we should
> really turn the mess that MiNT is currently in into some system that is
> attractive not only for freaks.

Well I don't think it will be very hard to find a central location for
storing the files. I will have a computer permanently on the internet in
about a month with quite a bit of room to spare, but I can't say whether
it will still be there in a few years time. But I'm sure there will be
many other people who can offer some space on a more permanent basis.

I suspect that finding people to reliably keep up to date the various
software packages will be more of a problem since there is rather a lot of
software that must be maintained to form a complete system. I would be
happy to maintain MiNT versions of some of the software I use, like
mgetty+sendfax and cnews, so once everything is arranged just let me know
:-)

-- 
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| Mario Becroft                * Tariland, New Zealand Atari User Group |
| mb@tos.pl.net                * Atari Hardware Developments            |
| http://www.ak.planet.gen.nz/~mario/ * Atari Serial Mouse Interface    |
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