2009/12/4 Peter Pöml poeml@cmdline.net:
I think there is a common assumption that a mirror would reflect the origin server quite well.
While this was always the case in our fathers' days, nowadays we have to deal with a file tree of maybe 2 TB, which no mirror is going to want to have. Thus, we offer them a subset that promises to make the most sense to users. This means getting those parts to users that are most likely to be popular, which is boils down to only 30-150G in the end, and which is just the amount that an average mirror is willing to contribute on resources.
Absolutely! That's why I suspected a script to grab source stuff from set of "source" servers would help things, as I was sure they were in a different place. I would think even one server could cope with load, and as suggested lower bandwidth would have to be accepted.
The reason of this split-up in the first place is to make the huge amounts of files more manageable. The extreme growth of openSUSE software hosting needs during the last few years, since the build service was invented, pushed everything to its limits.
Results of some earlier discussions are reflected in http://en.opensuse.org/FTP_Server_Layout%C2%A0(slight misnomer; there is no FTP server.)
Having source location in documentation won't get read & remembered in heat of moment.
I found there is indeed a link to the source repository on the 11.2 download page, but it's off to the left, when the eye is attracted to the radio buttons and fat binary download methods to the right.
Guess next time someone asks, more ppl will know the answer :)
Rob