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Thread: Locally Hosted Zimbabwe Mirror

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
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    Edubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn

    Locally Hosted Zimbabwe Mirror

    I would like to believe once a locally hosted Zimbabwe mirror is setup we will have many Zim users switching to Ubuntu. There is a zw.archive.ubuntu.com repo but that is in South Africa and the connection is quite slow and it timeouts. With a local mirror, that will mean cheaper and faster downloads and I would switch most of my clients to Ubuntu just based on that fact.
    (K)ubuntu7.04

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
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    Zimbabwe
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    Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

    Re: Locally Hosted Zimbabwe Mirror

    Hi,

    Thanks for your comments. Yup, as mentioned in my mail to you previously, I fully agree this is something we need to do. Will keep everyone posted as and when progress is made.

    As a matter of interest, when you talk about your clients, are you talking about clients on your local LAN? Or other clients outside your network? If on a LAN, there's always the possibility of setting up your own repository locally too. It doesn't necessarily have to be a full repo either - you could just update your own repo as and when updates/downloads are done from one machine. Just a thought.
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    Promoting Ubuntu in Zimbabwe: http://www.ubuntu.org.zw

  3. #3
    Join Date
    May 2007
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    Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala

    Re: Locally Hosted Zimbabwe Mirror

    How about we chat to local ISP's to see if they are willing to "sponser" a domain for the Ubuntu Zimbabwe Site as well as space for a local repo.

    I know the repo might be a long shot but whats the worst they can say, if we show Ubuntu/Canonical that we are serious the might fund a PC for us to use for the local repo, the trick would be trying to find a suitable spot for it to be setup that has power backup as well as a decent connection to the web, obviously one of the ISP's would be the best best and who knows they might step up and surprise us...

    Worth a shot I think

    Come on Ubuntu Zim lets

  4. #4
    Join Date
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    Edubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn

    Re: Locally Hosted Zimbabwe Mirror

    You will be surprised at the number of people using Ubuntu.

    For some the word Linux just scares them but I think with enough awareness many will join the bandwagon.

    Most people I am dealing with are on stand alone machines but if I can get the debs I can easily update their machines.

    Long shot, maybe Mark S. can pull a trick or 2
    My fingers are crossed.
    (K)ubuntu7.04

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
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    Zimbabwe
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    Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

    Re: Locally Hosted Zimbabwe Mirror

    Thanks for all the input guys. Nice to see the forum liven up a little

    Ok, this is where we stand at present:

    We have agreed to follow HT's suggestion of using Yoafrica (if they are willing to provide free hosting). Since they're already hosting repo's for a couple of other distros (and we also found ISO's of Feisty and Fedora Core 7 on their ftp site) I think we stand a pretty good chance. In addition to this, we have been hugely impressed by the speed of their ftp site, which is a big bonus too. So, now that we know "where" we're trying to go, we're just trying to make it happen.

    We have mailed Yoafrica (late yesterday afternoon) with an initial summary proposal, briefly outlining our request, and we just need to see if they'll bite.

    Not sure what everybody else thinks, but this is my idea of the "big picture" (once we have free hosting organised):

    1. The official domain for Zim will be www.ubuntu.org.zw
    2. This domain will host the "public" promotional/advertising web site (which we will have to create, of course. RS, will you be willing to do your thing with graphics?)
    3. From this web site, we should be able to offer local downloads of the latest Ubuntu release's iso.
    4. The repository would be accessible on a sub-domain; something like archive.ubuntu.org.zw.
    5. The site would also contain lists of other resources (both local and international) that are of interest to Ubuntu users - forums, mailing lists, irc channels, how-to's, etc. (As well as any other content we agree should be provided).

    What do you guys think?
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    Promoting Ubuntu in Zimbabwe: http://www.ubuntu.org.zw

  6. #6
    Join Date
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    Re: Locally Hosted Zimbabwe Mirror

    Sounds good to me NC, and if Yoafrica don't bite maybe we should try and set up a meeting with them to see what else we can do. I'm sure we can give them credit on the site which might pay off as advertising for them.

    I think we should some how get together the number of Ubuntu distro's being run in Zimbabwe as of now. The only fairly accurate method I could think of is somehow seeing how many pc's update, although I must admit I normally only update one pc then scp the updates to my other 5 ubuntu pc's, but my point being it might give us an idea how many people are using Ubuntu in Zim and might help our cause to get things rolling towards our goal.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
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    Zimbabwe
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    Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

    Re: Locally Hosted Zimbabwe Mirror

    We have had "some" feedback from Yoafrica, in that the person we contacted has forwarded our request to the owners of Yoafrica, as it will be their decision. Fingers crossed boys.

    I don't really think there is any way to gather stats on how many PC's are running/updating Ubuntu in Zim. (a) There are quite a few users who don't post on forums or take part in the mailing list, so "asking" people wouldn't really work, and (b) There is no way to really monitor this except at ISP level probably, and then you would need to get ALL ISP's to collect that sort of info. So I don't really think we've got much hope there.

    However, we'll see what the guys at Yoafrica say and then go from there. I don't think there's much else we can do but wait? But if they don't go for it straight away, as you say, we'd be more than happy to say "sponsored by Yoafrica" on the site.

    Anyway, will keep you guys posted.
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    Promoting Ubuntu in Zimbabwe: http://www.ubuntu.org.zw

  8. #8
    Join Date
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    Re: Locally Hosted Zimbabwe Mirror

    Lets hold thumbs, it would be nice for Yoafrica to step up to the plate. Next we need to work on some HDD space to for the repo's.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
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    Zimbabwe
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    Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

    Re: Locally Hosted Zimbabwe Mirror

    I'm hoping Yoafrica will provide that space so we don't need to worry about it.
    Powered by Linux
    ~~ and coffee ~~


    Promoting Ubuntu in Zimbabwe: http://www.ubuntu.org.zw

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
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    Zimbabwe
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    Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

    Exclamation Re: Locally Hosted Zimbabwe Mirror

    For those who haven't heard yet, Yoafrica has replied and said they would be happy to host the Zimbabwe Ubuntu repo for free!!!

    However, they don't have time to set it up themselves at the moment but implied that we could perhaps do it ourselves. We will obviously need to find out the logistics involved and do some research, as I personally haven't set up a repo mirror before. But the ball is rolling!

    Will keep everyone informed.
    Powered by Linux
    ~~ and coffee ~~


    Promoting Ubuntu in Zimbabwe: http://www.ubuntu.org.zw

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