Gotta start somewhere ... how many of us are really out there?

[User Freebsd]

On Wed, 2 Aug 2006, Peter A. Giessel wrote:

> On 2006/08/02 15:37, User Freebsd seems to have typed:
>> On Wed, 2 Aug 2006, Nikolas Britton wrote:
>>
>>> This may sound dumb but why don't we just put a registration link on the
>>> FreeBSD main page... or "registration" in sysinstall. Isn't this how
>>> everyone else handles the problem?
>
> I'd fill out a form to "register" FreeBSD, I did so with OpenOffice, and
> I did so with MacOSX, but I'm not going to let a DHD (dial home device)
> knowingly sit on my server.  Thats one (of many) reasons I don't use
> Microsoft.  I'll remove it before the "installworld" step if need be.

Pine has a nice feature in it ... when you upgrade or install, the first 
thing it prompts you for when you start it up the first time is whether or 
not you wish to send a message in to be counted as a pine user ... its an 
opt-in sort of thing, but highly visible ...

Maybe have something like this at the very end of the installworld?  So 
that it isn't automatic, but it is an obvious step that ppl go through?

It should also be included as part of sysinstall, again, opt-in ... "do 
you want to have you install counted?" ...

sysinstall should report it as a fresh install, installworld as an upgrade 
...

The problem with something like this, mind you, is that the #s go up, but 
never come down (ie. someone retires a server), since there is no 
'refresh timeout' ...

The thing I was hoping for / looking at was some sort of update mechanism, 
so that retired servers would 'fade out' of the numbers ... the problem is 
that that requires *some sort* of DHD, whether it be in the form of 
something like uptimec, or a 'periodic monthly' report that goes out to 
say "i'm still alive" :(


----
Marc G. Fournier           Hub.Org Networking Services (http://www.hub.org)
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