[cobalt-users] Have I just gone insane about (moving) these Lists?

["David J. Duffner - NWCWEB.com" <cobalt@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Ok kids,

	This has turned into a giant catfight, with minor
skirmishes about rather ridiculous things...  Bruce sadly
predicted this and with the overload of messages from this
past weekend I can see he was dead-on.

	Apparently y'all have missed a few points:

	#1 - FRIDAY THESE LISTS ARE GHANDI, yes that's right
if you actually took the time to read Craig's posts he's
done with the mess and he's going to dismantle everything.

	#2 - Sun has almost nothing to do with these Lists, 
beyond providing a (now) decrepit server locked away in the
bowels of their facilities and they have been 'gracious' 
enough to feed to power and a Net connection.  The Lists
were created by Sun employees in a spare-time situation
(from my understanding), have grown to what they are now
and have been maintained by Craig once Bruce was laid off
from Sun.

	#3 - Craig, on behalf of Sun, has made the clear
statement that Sun has committed to their EOL policy regarding
the beloved Blue Boxes, such as it is.  Since the 550 went
EOL recently, they're stuck supporting it (minimally) for 
the next 3 years.  Other versions, even less - if at all.

	#4 - You can send Sun all the money you want, they're
not interested in dealing with this subject, so it's up to 
all who participate here to come up with a solution - BY FRIDAY.

	#5 - While there's no love lost for Jeff on this List, 
while I have no personal problems with him, he's at least doing
something as he realizes the MANDATORY end is coming this week.
Instead of fighting it, there should be cooperation to determine
the best solution and get it done.  Even if Jeff's got only a
temporary solution to keep these e-mails flying, it's better
than nothing?

	#6 - I see constant voting posts for Bruce to take the
lead on this problem and determine what to do next.  I'm with
that decision as I think he personally did a damn good job with
it until his demise with Sun.  So we need to hear from him to 
determine what's next, but again, if it's not this week you 
get to see dead air.

	#7 - When you wake up Saturday and find you can't get 
mail from this List and your posts go off into oblivion, don't
be surprised?  

	#8 - Independent 3rd Party portal/website/whatever to 
handle all this.  It's obvious that those trying to do something,
however genuine and innocent the offers, are being perceived as
trying to make a buck or create a new advertising platform for
Cobalt Lists and support.  Just painfully obvious it's got to 
be a committee with Bruce at the helm or something of that nature.

	Me, I only have one Cobalt left in the ranks, barely used
for anything of value.  But, I started in dedicated servers with
the little blue beasts many years ago and have a fondness for 
them.  Additionally, this List deals with many Linux operational
and RH security issues that I use to improve what we're doing 
here.  That places a value on the List as a resource and having
one point to pick it up or determine where a solution for a Cobalt
problem would be invaluable.

	I've got space, I've got bandwidth.  I have made no mention
of these resources simply because of the flames and accusations
that are already being tossed up here.  If and when someone like
Bruce came up with a solution and then asked for those resources,
I'd happily make them available.  But again, I'm like-minded with
many here that it shouldn't turn into a giant ad campaign.

	In past posts, I've outlined and responded to layouts about
how to deal with those offering services and other items.  Should
they be charged to list, etc.  My answer then, as it is now, is 
that a one-stop shop with paid/unpaid listings for premium services
should be considered as a revenue source to cover the basic expenses
of producing the 'portal' and housing the lists in general.  Not
making a profit, but covering the wholesale expenses related to 
having something like this.  There's quite a few other options
without going insane, but that's for a committee or group of impartial
individuals to hash out and determine the best course.  Liken it 
to a 'Cobalt Preservation Society'.

	Non-Profit 503(c)'s - forget it!  The compliancy requirements
alone would suck up all the resources and cost more in the long run.
A for-profit company?  Well if anything came in, that should go to 
cover expenses and that should end up with a break-even in all cases.
If there's an overage, one would think reinvesting that back into 
a conference, more development or something of that nature as the 
best decision - again, by more than just one person.

	My mention of SourceForge was perverted way out of scope, I
said we need a SourceForge-like portal/solution for all this.  Since
there's nothing truly Open Source about a Cobalt at this point in 
time, beyond what Sun has released and others have developed outside
of Sun, SourceForge isn't close to a place to do this.  And, in my 
opinion, that place is almost as hard to navigate as Sun's support
sections like BigAdmin.  Cobalts, while powerful in their own right,
are entry-level server appliances and you need to make the final 
solution easy to use for both the pro's and those just getting into
the game with a RaQ or other Cobalt-based Server.

	So, can we stop the infighting, the BS and other odd-assorted 
flamewars and accusations - possibly come up with a real and viable
solution in the next FOUR DAYS?

	Thanks,

      David J. Duffner
      VP Operations
      NWC Corporation
      NWCWEB.com
      
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