[Leaplist] PCLinuxOS server, PLUS ibiblio servers down, temporarily!

["pberry2" at cfl.rr.com]

_*I can't get to the PCLinuxOS Help Forum!  How do I get help with my 
hardware/software problems?!? *_

The PCLinuxOS Help Forums are temporarily at 
http://pclossupport.forumsland.com/

Please post any help questions at this site rather than MyPCLinuxOS. 
Thanks for your continuing support of PCLinuxOS and come back here to 
join in our community projects.

_*What is the big problem?  How can a distro like PCLinuxOS have so many 
server problems?*_

Interesting that you should ask ;)  PCLinuxOS as you know has grown 
leaps and bounds since the early part of last year.  The website and 
forums are done by volunteers from many different countries.  All 
funding for the distribution is done through donations...that means 
webhosting is paid for by donations as well.

As some of you may recall, a few months ago PCLinuxOS.com had the rug 
pulled out from under them by their previous host and the server was 
shut down without warning.  It was then that they began shopping around 
for a host.  I recommended they went with my host and they did...the 
only problem was that a few days ago, they outgrew this host :)

This is a good thing and a bad thing.  It's good because it means that 
the community is growing at a phenomenal rate.  But it's a bad thing 
because we took down the webpage due to the increased interest.  In the 
meantime, Tex and the gang have decided to put up a brochure type 
webpage with static HTML to operate as an information portal while they 
continue to work on PCLinuxOS 2007.  Please stay tuned as Test Release 4 
will be out soon followed quickly by the full release.

Please refrain from emailing Tex and the gang with requests as to what 
is going on.  See this webpage and My.PCLinuxOS 
<http://www.mypclinuxos.com/> website for any further announcements.

_*Ok, so that explains the webpage...what about the ibiblio update 
server?  Let's see you explain that one...*_

Right :)  So, in the best time that could possibly be conceived, ibiblio 
had a hardware failure with one of their servers...specifically, one 
that has PCLinuxOS on it. There has been a major problem at ibiblio. A 
Raid Array has "fritzed" (their words), and new hardware has to be 
bought.  This has resulted in the disappearance of all but about 6 
distros from the ibiblio mirrors. Once the equipment has been replaced, 
our repository will be back up. A particular problem faced is that all 
our other mirrors around the world sync off ibiblio. You'll still be 
able to add software from them, but the content will be static for a 
short while until ibiblio sort out their problem.

The announcement from the ibiblio mailing list : 
http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/ibiblio-announce/2007-April/000174.html

_*So it's just a coincidence that ibiblio and PCLinuxOS.com went down?*_

Yes