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Comment by ninjin | Hacker News Reader

Felt the same way initially, but you are very much right that this feels like a throwback to a more playful time about twenty years ago. Put in a request for the OpenBSD src repository, which is too big to fit on a CD these days and I am looking forward to see if/how they square that circle. OpenBSD used to ship their code on CDs up until about ten years ago, so it is a bit of a fun throwback in that way as well.

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> Put in a request for the OpenBSD src repository, which is too big to fit on a CD these days and I am looking forward to see if/how they square that circle.

From literally the first few sentences:

> If we can make you a CD, it may take a few weeks to reach you.

They just won’t send it to you. Also keep in mind that they say it has to be your repo - not sure how they’re verifying that but you probably won’t get it for that reason too.

Riddle me this, what was the cost to me in terms of trying? If I feel like treating this like the fun we used to have online, what is the point in sucking all the fun out of it by "going lawyer" on the conditions? If I get a CD (or even DVD), it will be a fun story to tell (like when I asked Schneier to write a true Schneier Fact as opposed to his signature when I ordered a signed copy of one of his books). If I get nothing, well, I guess my life is simply over at that point.

You speculated wondering how they’ll manage it, I gave you an answer. If that ruined the fun for you, you may want to rethink how you say things on message boards.

So many ways for splitting across multiple discs... git bundle, split tar files, etc.

Now if it came with a userfs layer that lets users disc jockey and use the repo without copying it first, with some smart mapping making disc swaps seldomly needed, then serious respect would be in order.

you’re one of those people that actually needs /s tags, aren’t you?

This attitude is why we don’t have these things.

Increased risk profile, now they need to pass legal and finance, meetings are booked and cancelled, never seen again.

Only way to slip them past is if you’re the primary shareholder or line item on the marketing budget.

Really? A cause of our societal decline is requesting a CD for a repository that is too big to fit on it? Call me a naive optimist, but I would like to believe that whoever is reading the form results on GitHub's end is more than capable to make the call within a few seconds as to whether they also would find some joy in the challenge the size poses or just ignore it and move on with their day.

I want OpenBSD on blu-ray

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