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From: jpn@teddy.UUCP (John P. Nelson)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.d,news.admin
Subject: Re: binaries on the net
Message-ID: <4782@teddy.UUCP>
Date: 18 May 88 14:05:50 GMT
References: <1574@looking.UUCP> <22099@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <392@pan.UUCP> <4577@hoptoad.uucp> <1220@ssc.UUCP> <3083@bsu-cs.UUCP> <53618@sun.uucp>
Reply-To: jpn@teddy.UUCP (John P. Nelson)
Organization: GenRad, Inc., Concord, Mass.
Lines: 34

>For the record, I'm with Phil. Binaries have outlived their usefulness.

I just had to add my $.02

I certainly prefer sources over binaries.  Given the nature of USENET,
with a diversity of computer types, and where EVERY site must
redistribute EVERY article, it makes more sense to post SOURCE, so that
the program is usable by as wide an audience as possible.

On the other hand, there are a LOT of PC's (all types, not just IBM)
out there.  Often those who write programs for PCs are not willing
to distribute source (silly, perhaps, but that's how it is).  Also,
often SOURCE for such programs is steeped in machine dependencies:
the program wouldn't be much use to anyone who didn't have the right
type of machine, anyway.

It can be argued that USENET is primarily made up of machines that are
NOT PCs, and users of such require SOURCE.  While this may be true to
sume extent, there are also a LOT of users who use both a USENET machine
and a personal PC:  These people find binaries quite useful (I do myself!)

So what is the answer?  There ARE other forums for PC binaries (BBS
systems around the world, pay services like compuserve and the SOURCE,
etc.)  On the other hand, a significant fraction of users of USENET are
benefitted by binaries.  Who makes that kind of decision?  Do we turn
off rec.arts.startrek just because only 1% of USENET readers benefit?
(no flames please :-)  How about talk.jokes?  The binary groups have a
large readership, as large as most of the other popular groups, and
larger than many of the "fringe" groups!
-- 
     john nelson

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