Re: Linux mirrors in India ?

["Ruchir Tewari" <ruchir_tewari@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Suresh,

I understand exactly what you are talking about.

there's a simple fact of life, which bears oft
repeating, because it is so sweet and so true:

If you do not ask, you do not get.
So if you have nothing to lose by asking, by all
means go ahead and ASK !!

That means if you have to ask all the way up to the
PM to get free linux CDs and free linux download
sites  aNd extra bandwidth, you don't sweat over it.
Especially in case of linux - because linux really is
meant to be FREE. Even the government does not have
to spend a rupee apart from distribution costs.
With free source code and all, this stuff is more
powerful than you imagine.

Just to remind us all of the plentiful capacity already,
available, and the IT Taskforce goals, do check out -

http://it-taskforce.nic.in/vsit-taskforce/infdrive.htm

And for emails of some of the people at the top
that you can write to when your access to free
software is not fast enough - (just remember to ask nicely ).

http://it-taskforce.nic.in/vsit-taskforce/member.htm

And for some inspiring words from the PM himself -

http://it-taskforce.nic.in/vsit-taskforce/expts.htm

Unless you ask, IT will again become a case the
haves and have-nots. Everybody should have easy access,
bar none.



Finally, I'm of the opinion that the RECs have more
screaming to do. Their cities are not even on the
DoTs plans for international gateways. There are only
5 or 6 international gateways in the proposed backbone.
Makes we wanna scream !

happy linuxing,
- Ruchir













From: Suresh Ramasubramanian <mallet@xxxxxxx>
Reply-To: Suresh Ramasubramanian <mallet@xxxxxxx>
To: linux-india-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [LIG] Linux mirrors in India ?


On Tue, Jan 30, 2001 at 06:52:01PM +0000, Ruchir Tewari typed:

> tried accessing ftp://sunsite.ernet.in and get
> 'unknown host'. what's located there ?

Thats the wrong URL.  It's ftp://sunsite.serc.iisc.ernet.in

> i don't think it's unrealistic. big ISPs also
> play the role of content provider along with
> access provider.

Content providers, yes.  NOT download sites.  Even if they do, most ISPs 
would
become a tucows mirror or something similar, as there are profits in doing 
so.

> VSNL, which is currently the biggest indian ISP has
> access to the 75000 Km of fiber optic cable laid
> out in India by DoT - which is being grossly
> underutilized, because of not enough content in

If VSNL allows access to that, there are plenty of ISPs waiting in the 
wings,
panting for excess bandwidth.

> apart from ISPs, we should explore Universities,
> IITs, RECs, software technology parks and other
> institutions to do mirroring of linux related

Institutions such as the RECs have _very_ limited internet access (like a 
64k
or lesser leased line shared among several hundred students)

> and other free software sites. i'm sure all of these
> have a few Gb of hard disk and a few Mb of bandwidth
> to spare.

My dear chap, most people have 256 kbps or so of bandwidth.  If you colo at
VSNL / Satyam and others, the rate for bandwidth will make your head spin.

So, the only way to go is to chase the ISPs for this.

	--suresh

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