Re: criticism about hosting download packages

On Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 11:37 PM, Guillaume Lelarge
<guillaume(at)lelarge(dot)info> wrote:
> Le 25/02/2011 00:14, Josh Berkus a écrit :
>>
>>> first of all: i did some cross checking with legal stuff here this evening and what susanne says seems to be true according to some quick investigation.
>>> i don't want to elaborate on the details here and i don't want to add 500 more argument why this simply sucks ...
>>> just one final word: stop this kind of stuff ... and do it now ...
>>
>> Hans, you are not an attorney.
>>
>> If you go to the EDB download page, the download begins automatically.
>> The page tells you that downloads begin automatically.  There's a link
>> if downloads don't begin automatically.  The registration form makes it
>> clear that it's for EDB extras.
>>
>> So I really don't see what the problem is.
>>
>> Back in 2007, at Sun I hired an industry analyst to do research give me
>> a list of the 5 biggest items inhibiting PostgreSQL community growth and
>> large enterprise adoption.  The lack of "all-in-one packages" was item
>> #3.  The fact that EnterpriseDB eliminated that item has expanded our
>> community and user base to many people who never tried PostgreSQL before.
>>
>> The one-click packages are important.  We do not have the volunteer
>> resources as a community to produce them without EDB's help.  If we tell
>> EDB to get rid of their registration form, they will simply not produce
>> them.
>>
>> So unless you're volunteering the resources of Cybertec to take over
>> production of the one-click packages, this is a pointless discussion.
>>
>
> I completely agree with Josh. This issue comes from time to time, and is
> getting crazier at each time. I believe now is the time for me to vote
> for EDB.
>
> EDB does a lot of work to make the one-click installer a really nice and
> usefull tool. They allow people to download it without requiring to
> register for it. We may not like their download webpage, but they have
> the right to choose what they put on their webpages, and the community
> has the right to decide if it wants to link to it or not.
>
> And right now, as the community doesn't have the same kind of installer,
> I think we need to keep the link. It's really usefull for many people (I
> suppose mostly Windows users).
>
> So, instead of bashing them, we should thank them for this nice tool.
>
> BTW, I'm not an EDB employee, so...

And MySQL is no better: http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mirror.php?id=400397
(though, as always, we may have better wording)

This conversation consumes the valuable and scare time of some very
smart folks. Perhaps no more should be spent on this topic?

--
Rob Wultsch
wultsch(at)gmail(dot)com