Subject: RFD: comp.binaries.linux moderated
From: [email-masked] (John Paul Morrison)
Date: 4 Apr 1994 20:06:49 -0400
Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.announce

This is a request for discussion on a creating a new, moderated usenet
group, comp.binaries.linux. The newsgroup will be for distribution
of compiled binaries for all Linux systems (as Linux is ported to
other architectures, and volume increases, the newsgroup can be split
into comp.binaries.linux.i386, comp.binaries.linux.m68k, etc,
to be discussed in a seperate RFD and vote, perhaps in six months or
a year).

Since alt.sources, comp.sources.unix, comp.sources.x and
comp.sources.misc, uncompiled portable UNIX sources should not be
posted to comp.binaries.linux. Linux specific sources may be posted
at the moderator's discretion.

The purpose of comp.binaries.linux is to provide Linux binaries to UUCP
sites and other sites that would benefit from having binaries posted
to news.  There is an obvious need for Linux binaries, as shown by the
great volume of precompiled software binaries loaded to Linux ftp sites such
as sunsite.unc.edu, tsx-11.mit.edu, even though source code is
available elsewhere. Since many Linux sites are not able to access
these ftp acrhives because they have only UUCP or Fidonet connections,
there is a significant demand for a Linux binaries newsgroup.

To be discussed in the RFD:

-	whether there is a need for a Linux binaries group
-	charter for comp.binaries.linux
-	guidelines  for what should be posted to comp.binaries.linux

Examples of what would be posted to comp.binaries.linux:

-	H.J. Lu's distributions of gcc binaries, C shared libraries
-	Linux XFree86 binary distributions
-	compressed sources to Linus Torvalds Linux kernels, and major patch
	updates from Linus Torvalds 
-	Linux specific kernel support utilities:
	e2fsck, modutils, setserial, etc.

In addition, this RFD should resolve whether or not Linux
distributions should be posted, in whole or in part. If Linux
distributions are to be posted, to save bandwidth, only one
distribution should be posted to avoid duplication. If there is no
consensus, it will be up to the moderator to decide whether
distributions are posted, which one is posted, and whether or not a
smaller "lite" distribution for posting to comp.binaries.linux is
appropriate.
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