What happend to the idea building a central MorphOS software repository like gnomefiles.org or os4depot.net?

For now we have 3 repositories for MorphOS related software: morph.zone, pegasosforum.de and the good old aminet.net

Wouldn't it be better to have one central site that runs independend from any forum or portal?

I agree with you that a dedicated software repostiry would be a good thing. Shouldn't be too hard to setup; might make a sensible bounty suggestion (maybe with continuing financial support from the "general fund")?

ps, you forgot nr. 4, morphos-news.de ;)

[ Edited by Stevo on 2005/8/11 10:08 ]

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Thats just a file list with links.



[ Edited by DJBase on 2005/8/11 13:02 ]

oh bah, you're right

I thought it hosted some files on it's own server....seems it doesn't

Personally, I think it would be nice if we could help support the aminet in some way. There is a new interface to the aminet, and it is easier to pick out what will work with MorphOS and what will not. On the same token, I wouldn't mind having some kind of MOSSoft.org or something to get software from.

At any rate, MorphZone's download system isn't that hard to use. Click, Click, cut, paste, file-requester, and click.

As soon as the EZPM bounty will be completed we will have the possibility to distribute anything as a package.
On the user side you will just have to set the list of servers you want to connect to to get packages from and select the packages you want to have installed / updated.
I hope that Morphzone will be the first place to distribute such packages and that after other sites will use it aswell.

[ Edited by cdfr on 2005/8/11 4:45 ]

While I check mos-news.de daily for downloads, when it comes to seeking older files, the Aminet is the place to do it. After it's update it's really nice to use .. mr.Mendoza did a very nice job.

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Yes, the Aminet gets a better interface but the system behind is still old and the updates are going slowly for new uploaded files sometimes.

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Its not about the way to use. Why must have every board its own download area with the same files? We are not that big that we would need such a competition. Noone knows what each other have stored in their system. The users have to check and look every page.

My idea is much bigger, working more together. So every portal or forum can use news from morphos-news.de, using files from morphfiles.org (as example) and so on.

@DJBase
Very good points. I didn't realize that the updates were going so slowly on the aminet. (though now that I think about it, you are absolutely right) Hmm.. Isn't the reason updates are so slow is that the files are individually checked for plagiarism(sp)?

I could probably find or create (maybe in conjunction with mos-news.de) something to use as an interface, but the real problem would be diskspace and bandwidth.

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I dont think diskspace and bandwidth would be a problem (for now). We at pegasosforum.de have around 460 files stored that need 1.2 GB of space, the bandwidth is about 8 GB here but mixed with the forum. So I think with 100 GB of bandwidth we could be safe. The biggest problem is to maintain all the stuff.

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Now that you mention it.. That's been the biggest problem here too. Getting authors to submit files, having a "media miner" of sorts to go looking for files, and coming up with a meaningful catagorization of those files. Also, we have to keep in mind that some developers want to keep their files on their servers only (take for instance U.G; we link to AmiNetRadio, but do not host it at his request.) Not that I'm complaining; I just feel that we do have to respect that some authors aren't going to want their files in any central repository.

Then, we would have a new problem -- how to get everyone to switch what they currently do (upload to this site or that) to go to one site everytime they release something.
We'll need a few things it seems:
a) a good url, it would need to be easy to remember
b) a good host - if not current bandwidth we do need to remember that there will be future bandwidth needs.
c) someone who could be a maintainer
d) a "media miner" of sorts to go get files and developers
e) get the support of the community for such a project.

If we can adjust a list of needs then we could start to hammer out what we have that is available to us--and maybe turn an idea into a reality somewhere...

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That should be no problem.

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Simple answer: Close your own download area and add a newsfeed onto the frontpage from the new site. So they have no other way as to go to the new site. These are just habits they have to change. Should only take some days to be in mind.

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I liked the name Butterflyvale
We have here over 1500 people registered so there should be a handfull who will work on this with us.

I like the name butterflyvale too

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Well, it would at least let me aim the download area here towards betatester and developer stuff (would be rights based and most would not be public). If we can get the other webmasters to agree (if not RSS then to fill their downloads with only links to the central repository) then why not? I know it would certainly make backing up morphzone easier and the tarball(s) would be a lot smaller.

By the way, do you have anyone in mind as a maintainer?

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Of course you can keep the non-public area.

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No, at least not me. I guess there is someone outhere who want to be famous.

this would be a great idea, i wonder exacytly how much bandwidth and space we would need?

Hello,

I'm a member of the new Aminet team and stumbled across this thread by accident.

It seems the majority of you guys would rather have a new, MorphOS only software repository than using Aminet for that purpose. That's fine with me, of course, it's just that it leaves me somewhat puzzled.

The only disadvantage mentioned so far is that uploads may take some time to get moderated - that was true for a period of about two months, but the issues responsible for this have been solved and uploads are moderated daily again.

Are there any other things you don't like about Aminet? You know, if you keep these things to yourself, it's unlikely they're going to get solved anytime soon

Again: I'm merely fishing for some constructive criticism or new ideas here. If you'd rather have a MorphOS only software repository for non-technical reasons or reasons that don't have anything to do with Aminet ("the red camp has one, it's about time we get one aswell!" ), I certainly won't complain.

I'm all for using Aminet as the repository. The only thing missing is an user controllable filter in the web interface to select only one particular architecture (for example all packages having MOS specified explicitly plus all packages for all architectures). It should be global, so it should work in recent and search.

If you'd rather have a MorphOS only software repository for non-technical reasons or reasons that don't have anything to do with Aminet ("the red camp has one, it's about time we get one aswell!"), I certainly won't complain.

Well I guess we can easily turn Aminet into 'our' repository just by increasing number of uploads, especially as OS4 followers have choosen to create a separate repository for OS4 software.

P.S. I see in "Setup" page that filter feature is planned, so please implement it .

[ Edited by Krashan on 2005/8/14 10:30 ]

just my 2 cents after reading recent replys and thinking about it.
REally ive always like aminet and since the os4 users are ogign there
way. The morphos has always had more of a feel of the old 68k classics
lets just stay there and instead of spreading support thin lets put a
bounty up to help aminet out??? Maybe we can get them to add a hair
better search feature to bringup morphos files? just my thoughts on
this.

Well, the Aminet is for me Amiga 68k and will be ever. There is no real cut-off between 68k, os4 and MorphOs. Everything is mixed and hard to find or understand for beginners. Also missing more features like rating, comments, a better screenshot function (external links not really usefull) and the filenames are still limited (we are in 2005 already).

Edit: And I would need also a filter option for the RSS Feed to show only mos-files.



[ Edited by DJBase on 2005/8/14 16:16 ]

@DJBase:

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All archives are now classified (os3, os4, morphos, all...) and easily identified by appropriate icons. As Krashan already pointed out, functionality to configure Aminet to your liking (which architectures do you want to have displayed, how many files per page etc.) is already being worked on.

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Rating and download charts are in the works. I'm not sure if implementing comments is a good idea: Do you have an idea about the workload involved when allowing anonymous users to post? I have, and it's not funny

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The interface currently used on Aminet was originally used for Amirepo (a third party Aminet frontend), I think the current implementation of the screenshot feature is a leftover from back then.

Changing that to "screenshot is inside archive, the screenshot: field points out the path and filename inside the archive" is already on the ToDo list.

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The only limitation is the filename length (30 characters). I don't think it's *that* bad, but that's probably down to personal preference.

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Already requested by Tokai and on the ToDo list.

Oh, there is much more. There are too much (sub)categories and the names are garbled (wtf is util/wb?). Ok, there is an explanation but this all looks too antique. Why having for one software 3 entries for all platforms? Why not having one entry with all compiles? Why does old entries which are mentioned to replace in the readme not disappear?

There is so much to do, it would be faster and easier to build a clean and fresh new system than hacking the old one.

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Only for registered users. I wouldn't allow anonymous post.

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What should that be? You have to include a screenshot in your archive? eh?

Even if we choose to set up a separate filearchive for MorphOS, couldn't it be done so that all files are automaticly uploaded to Aminet aswell? Shouldn't be too hard?

@DJBase:

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Well, here's an idea: If you don't like the interface, implement your own Has been done numerous times, parsing the RECENT files is not exactly rocket science. You wouldn't need to care about bandwidth and could still have as much eyecandy as you like...

This seems to be down to personal preferences (imho, util/wb is the most excellent category name ever invented ), not much we can do about that I guess

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Because different ports are often done by different authors, because it would be stupid (imho) to force everybody to download three or four binaries if he only needs one and because implementing a package management system that resolves dependencies (another thing on the ToDo list, albeit with rather low priority) becomes much more complicated if a package contains several binaries, each with different dependencies.

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Another small technical glitch that has been solved in the meantime. All of this year's uploads had their replaces: directives executed by now.

Btw., the way you specified the packages to be replaced could not work anyway: you need to specify a relative path (foo/bar/djbase.lha), not an absolute one (http://...).

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Yes, great idea. I asked for a new system, people telling me aminet is fine, giving input, people starting I should start my onw system.

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What about utilities/workbench so everyone understand that instantly?

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No, not including all compiles in one archive. Just one entry with infos but listed all compiles like on bebits.com - sample: http://bebits.com/app/1246

[ Edited by DJBase on 2005/8/15 11:35 ]