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Re: distribute xz-compressed tarballs, too?


From: Jim Meyering
Subject: Re: distribute xz-compressed tarballs, too?
Date: Mon, 07 Jun 2010 10:00:18 +0200

Bruno Haible wrote:
> Hi Jim,
>> > True, but it would need 50% more disk space on the ftp server and each
>> > of its mirrors.
>>
>> Disk space it not the issue.  As you say, it is very inexpensive, now.
>> However, network bandwidth is not.
>
> Well, one of the two leading German hosted web server providers now offers
> "unlimited traffic" for its virtual and dedicated servers. You pay for
> the RAM you need. You pay for the OS, if it's not Linux. But you don't
> pay for the traffic any more.
>
> Now, if half of the users request the .tar.gz file and the other half the
> .tar.xz file, the working set for serving both is increased by 50%,
> compared to the case of only the .tar.gz file.
>
> Really, if someone wants to convince me with the argument of server and
> mirror bandwidth, I want to see the cost calculation of the server admin.

It's not just ISPs.

With some countries/ISPs, it is indeed free.  But for many ISPs, traffic
is metered, and for *users* in some places, all downloads are metered.
IMHO, it is our duty as packagers to give them the opportunity to
download the same content in a container that is half the size of a
gzip-compressed tarball.

Also, the people at GNU tell us it is good to point to mirrors in release
announcements, in order to reduce the load on their primary server.



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