From megalith!errors@uunet.uu.net Sun Oct 23 23:37:49 1994 Received: from relay3.UU.NET by toadflax.cs.ucdavis.edu (4.1/UCD.CS.2.6) id AA16198; Sun, 23 Oct 94 23:33:54 PDT Received: from uucp7.UU.NET by relay3.UU.NET with SMTP id QQxmys21338; Mon, 24 Oct 1994 02:33:52 -0400 Received: from megalith.UUCP by uucp7.UU.NET with UUCP/RMAIL ; Mon, 24 Oct 1994 02:34:12 -0400 Received: by megalith.miami.fl.us (wUUCP 1.10) id <2p2d@megalith.miami.fl.us>; Mon, 24 Oct 94 01:29:57 -0400 Sender: CSAA@megalith.miami.fl.us Errors-To: errors@megalith.miami.fl.us Warnings-To: errors@megalith.miami.fl.us Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Newsgatesoftware: Amiga Newsgate V1.6 Reply-To: umueller@wuarchive.wustl.edu (Urban Mueller) Message-Number: 960 Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.announce X-Newssoftware: CSAA NMS 1.2 Message-Id: Date: Mon, 24 Oct 1994 01:29:53 -0400 From: umueller@wuarchive.wustl.edu (Urban Mueller) (CSAA) To: announce@cs.ucdavis.edu (CSAA-Submissions) Subject: (CSAA) Aminet hits 10000 files Status: RO Today, October 14th 1994, three years after its inception, Aminet has hit a total number of 10,000 online files. Again, I would like to step on the soapbox and talk what happended in the meantime, how Aminet looks today, and what is still in the making. And of course I'd like to thank the countless people who helped to make Aminet what it is today. THE HISTORY ----------- As I expected, there's not nearly as many stories to tell about the the second 5000 files that found their way onto Aminet as there were about the first 5000. Considering how violent the early days of Aminet were, this is certainly a progress. Yes, there were some notable events. There was a first go at integrating the boing archive into Aminet (thanks once again to the many, many volunteers who helped). Also, the manufacturer of the Aminet CD ROM's has changed - for the better, I hope. We've also introduced some new services, like gopher and WWW servers, new mirrors, and 50 BBSes carrying Aminet. But far more important is that Aminet now has become established standard. Aminet now grown to a point where almost everyone on the Internet has a working Aminet mirror nearby, which removes the need to use international Internet lines. There are 20 official Aminet mirrors now, plus another dozen inofficial or partial ones. Aminet can also be accessed from about 60 BBSes around the world, as well as on CD-ROM and diskettes. Amiga magazines have started quoting Aminet as the source of the freely distributable software they review. It looks like a dream has come true. Back when I started doing the 50 Megabyte archive that was to become Aminet, I had a look at how the distribution of freely distributable software worked. It was quite messy. There were many possible channels (different FTP sites, independent BBSes, and lots of diskette PD series) where a software author could place his releases, but none of them came even close to reaching everyone. And none of those channels came anywhere close to carrying all the Amiga software released. Wouldn't it be much nicer if there existed a large pool where simply *all* Amiga software is released and stored? It was a complete utopia when Aminet was founded. It starts to become reality now. Much like the Fish disks in the early days, Aminet has now become the place to check for new software. We had the luck (lots of luck, considering how much could have gone wrong) to see a good thing succeed so totally that I don't expect any of my future ideas will ever come close. Internet is a strange place to be. Aminet is being run by a team of 60 administrators who, for the most part, have never seen each other or even talked to each other. Aminet is moderated by a Swiss who never got closer than 1000 miles to the computer he does his work on. The uploads are contributed by people who, for the most part, are never going to know who they wrote them for. We may not know each other. But the users of the Amiga are, more than the users of any other computer in the world, and on the Internet more than anywhere else, a community. And I am happy to have provided one bond that keeps that community together. THE PRESENT ----------- Monthly downloads in thousands (at wuarchive). The recent decline shows a shift to the mirrors, since wuarchive is full almost all of the time. Newer data not available. 1993 1994 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- 48 25 36 45 49 33 204 280 264 233 229 214 212 210 210 167 Monthly uploads (files): 1993 1994 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep ... Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- 235 396 609 389 431 287 333 419 502 642 709 814 660 588 568 648 Subdir size in megabytes: (total: 1713 M) Growth factor since the 5000 files posting: biz comm demo dev docs disk game gfx misc mods mus pix text util --- ---- ---- --- ---- ---- ---- --- ---- ---- --- --- ---- ---- 53 81 154 93 21 10 128 262 77 265 33 136 59 98 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.2 - 3.6 2.0 2.5 2.1 2.0 1.1 2.0 1.3 2.2 Number of files at some mirrors: Mirror Files ------ ----- ftp.wustl.edu 10000 ftp.netnet.net 10000 ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk 10000 ftp.uni-paderborn.de 10000 (soon) ftp.cdrom.com 9230 ftp.uni-erlangen.de 7281 ftp.eunet.ch 5410 ftp.etsu.edu 5100 ftp.uni-stuttgart.de 4584 ftp.uni-siegen.de 1501 ftp.uni-kl.de 1488 ftp.math.ethz.ch 1058 THE FUTURE ---------- There really isn't very much left that I can promise for the future. What I promised last time is reality now. A few improvements are still ahead, though: So far Aminet is very hard to use for people with mail only access to Internet. I plan to make their lives easier with a distributed specialized mail server for Aminet, and a mail-upload facility. Also planned is an Aminet CD access tool that combines the browsing and searching capabilities of the current software without using Amigaguide for viewing. Don't expect it very soon, though. But the last real step ahead I'm trying to get implemented is called annotations. This will allow everyone to stick a short comment to the .readme file of somebody else's upload, thus turning Aminet into a two-way communication medium. That way, you will for example be able to point out that a program does not run under AGA , or give a program a rating (which will be collected, averaged and published). The whole thing is quite complicated to get going, though, so give me some time.... And of course, if there is any additional service you would like to see in Aminet, just tell me. I'm running out of ideas :) CREDITS ------- There are countless people who keep Aminet going. I'd like to thank them all, but especially: The uploaders for writing freely distributable software and taking the pain write readmes and to upload them Matthias Scheler who helps a lot with the daily administration and moderation at wuarchive The volunteers who helped with integrating the boing software collection into Aminet The mirror adms for maintaining that large number of mirrors which made the success of Aminet possible Fred Fish for helping combine his software collection with Aminet Martin Schulze for his great job with beta testing the Aminet CD and for forwarding diskette contributions to Aminet Stefan Ossowski for producing the Aminet CD at a very low price Chris Myers for maintaining wuarchive.wustl.edu Karl Frederick for maintaining the Aminet mailing lists I hope you liked the service so far, and if you have any comments, wishes or ideas, please to contact me. Let's hope we'll be able to see a 15,000 file posting about one year from now. -- Read all administrative posts before putting your post up. Mailing list: announce-request@cs.ucdavis.edu. Comments to CSAA@megalith.miami.fl.us. MAIL ALL COMP.SYS.AMIGA.ANNOUNCE ANNOUNCEMENTS TO announce@cs.ucdavis.edu. ============================================================================ This is part of a mailing list gateway maintained by Carlos Amezaga. Bugs & comments to CSAA@megalith.miami.fl.us. Subscribes, UnSubcribes, help and faq requests should be sent to announce-request@cs.ucdavis.edu.