Annvix Development Blog

I posed a question on the users@ and dev@ mailing lists regarding funding to obtain third-party hosting for an FTP site. The service costs about $170USD for a 2-year agreement for hosting, and it allows for 2TB/mo of bandwidth which should be more than sufficient for the main Annvix FTP site (I’d do it on my own server but would probably end up paying through the nose for it as there’s no way I can match 2TB/mo of bandwidth usage for $7USD/mo).

At any rate, as a result of this request, Ying stepped up and made a fair sized donation so we’re over half-way to that goal. I very much appreciate Ying’s donation, especially in light of the fact that he’s also a contributor to Annvix, despite using it in production for a few servers. So for that very generous donation I think you, Ying.

To date, Annvix has received less than $400 in donations which, for about 3.5 years of development, works out to about $115/year or roughly $9.50/mo. If you take away Ying’s donation (which I’m using exclusively for this FTP hosting once the rest is covered), I’ve been running at a deficit of about $183/mo (in terms of money I’ve invested in the project out of my own pocket; this doesn’t count my time).

I very rarely ask for money or try to push donations in people’s faces, but I am completely unable to pay for this hosting deal, so am asking for donations to help cover that cost. What I’ve spent on Annvix I’ve already spent; I can’t take it back, and while I’d like to recoup those expenses one day, this “drive” isn’t for that. I’m expressly looking for donations to cover the cost of anonymous FTP hosting for the rpm repository and ISOs so people can download Annvix at a decent speed and also obtain updates for their system at a decent speed.

In other words, if you like Annvix and feel its worth parting with a few dollars for, now would be a good time so that I can get this hosting deal and provide better access to the ISOs and packages. I know there are quite a few people using Annvix, and it would be fantastic if you could take the opportunity to invest a few dollars in something as practical as better file access (being able to get updates (i.e. security and bugfix updates) can have a very tangible impact on your running system). Of course, if you feel like rewarding the developers for their time, feel free to donate in that regard as well.

Thanks.

On a side note, I’d still love to get testimonials from people using Annvix so I can post them here for others to look at. I know there are quite a few people using Annvix, and I don’t mind if you’re the quiet/shy/whatever type, but it would be awesome to hear about *why* you’re using Annvix and not something like Engarde or OpenBSD or RHEL, etc.

The documentation on the wiki has been updated so most of what’s there should be current for 2.0-RELEASE. There are still some missing bits that need to be written and a few things that probably need to be added. Suggestions are welcome in that regard (if there is something you feel is missing, please add a comment here or on one of the mailing lists). The documentation that is there should (again, for the most part) be current and consistent with the 2.0-RELEASE.

As well, users can create their own accounts on the wiki if they are so inclined now (before it was completely restricted). It’s still very much restricted; regular users can edit the talk/discussion pages associated with existing documents, but cannot create new documents or edit existing documents. This is to prevent spamming and defacing of the main site. If you wish to have edit access to the main documentation on the site, please ask and I’ll consider it. Otherwise, you can comment on existing documentation via the talk pages.