Xref: utzoo comp.sys.mac.system:3491 comp.sys.mac.programmer:22593 Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!dowdy@apple.com From: dowdy@apple.com (Tom Dowdy) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system,comp.sys.mac.programmer Subject: The situation on apple.com Message-ID: <50206@apple.Apple.COM> Date: 13 Mar 91 15:48:00 GMT Sender: nntp@Apple.COM Organization: Apple Computer, Inc. Lines: 72 Every once in a while someone looks on apple.com for some new piece of software and (upon not finding it) instantly jumps to the conclusion that Apple Computer, Inc. has it in for them personally. While I hardly speak for Apple Computer, Inc, I thought I would try to shed some light on the apple.com and FTP situation. You may direct any comments or flames to Mark Johnson at mjohnson@apple.com. Why isn't XXXX on apple.com? Three reasons: 1) apple.com is nearly full. Because apple.com serves as an engineering unix playstation, mail routing, news, and other server in addition to FTP, it gets more use (both disk and CPU) than it really should. We are trying to limit how much junk we throw up there to the things people REALLY need. 2) Putting stuff up for FTP on apple.com isn't anyone's job. Several people (myself and Mark Johnson included) do work on our OWN TIME to make software available for FTP. This isn't in any of our job descriptions and we are all kinda busy with our own jobs. In particular, of late, System 7.0 (and preparing the CDs for developers) has been a rather large time-sink, as one might imagine. Believe me, the LAST thing you want to do after a 12 hour (or more) day of coding and bug fixing is to try to wrestle with a unix FTP server! 3) We are trying to offload FTP services to another machine (ftp.apple.com) for both CPU and disk reasons. This machine isn't ready yet, but we are trying not to upload a bunch of stuff to apple.com only to remove it later. This begs the next question: Why isn't ftp.apple.com available yet? Four reasons: 1) The machine in question is in need of a new hard disk. This is in process (and has been for some time). 2) There are some FTP changes we need to make. Once again, this is in process as well. These changes are to allow us to track usage (both who is getting things, as well as which things are being gotten). These changes will allow us (hopefully) to move this from a part-time-seat-of-the-pants operation to one that is actually SUPPORTED by Apple. 3) There is a great deal of grunt work that needs to be done in order to place the quanity of software up onto ftp.apple.com that we wish to. There are ALOT of disks and directories that need to be stuffed and binhexed for your enjoyment. We have some MPW scripts that help us, but it isn't all automatic - and as I said before, this is all on our own time. 4) Legal reasons. This is perhaps the least of the concerns as it only affects SOME of the software. There are some licensing things going on that need to be resolved prior to placing SOME software up for FTP. This is in process. No, I won't tell you which software it is. In summary, we are doing this as fast as we can while not getting ourselves fired. We will try to make really interesting software available as soon as we can on apple.com, but we really ARE limited in what we can put there at this time. To try to make people happier: we will try to get the TrueType disks up on apple.com AS SOON as humanly possible. In return, all I ask is a little patience as we try to get all of this working. Thank you, Tom Dowdy Internet: dowdy@apple.COM Apple Computer MS:81EQ UUCP: {sun,voder,amdahl,decwrl}!apple!dowdy 20525 Mariani Ave AppleLink: DOWDY1 Cupertino, CA 95014 "The 'Ooh-Ah' Bird is so called because it lays square eggs."