In order to test the Win95 version of LISTSERV, L-Soft is offering to
host a limited number of lists for free on its Win95 development system
(WIN95.DC.LSOFT.COM). The Win95 version currently has the same
functionality as the NT, VMS and unix versions. The final product may or
may not be available in "Lite", "Regular" and/or "Pro" versions with
different feature sets and memory requirements. This is a marketing
decision that we will not be able to make until the final version of
Win95 is released and we can find out how much memory exactly one would
need to run LISTSERV while at the same time using the computer normally.
The free mailing lists are being offered with the following caveats:
1. This offer may be withdrawn or amended without notice. L-Soft may
refuse to host a particular list with or without cause. In particular,
L-Soft may decide that it has enough lists to proceed with the tests,
or that a particular list is too large for the test machine.
2. The lists will be hosted at no charge until the date of final release
of Win95 plus one month, or until the date of release of LISTSERV for
Win95, whichever comes last.
3. L-Soft will make reasonable efforts to operate the lists to "industry"
standard levels of service for free recreational lists. However the
beneficiary agrees and understands that the list will be operated on a
test/beta environment where problems are possible. In particular, we
may need to take the machine or server down for debugging purposes,
possibly for extended periods of time. In general, the machine will be
treated like a development machine (which is what it is), and not like
a production machine.
4. The lists will otherwise be operated as per the terms and conditions
for L-Soft's "EASE Basic" service, with the exception of clauses
relating to payment of fees, of which there will be none, and quality
of service, backups or availability, for which L-Soft makes no
guarantee whatsoever for the reasons enumerated above. Concretely this
means that we run the machine and you run the list, and if you start
selling drugs over the list we turn you in to the Feds :-)
All right, so as mentioned in point 1 we're not going to be taking over
all the orphaned lists in the network. The idea is that this a way for us
to test the software with real traffic, and a way for you to get a free
host until you can find a better machine, maybe run the list on your own
PC once Win95 comes out. We'll give discounts to the participants :-) But
what we absolutely don't want to have is 10,000 people sending mail to us
when the machine is down. This in fact is the main reason why we will
probably stop at 20-30 lists. We want to be able to fire up a debugger
without having the phone ringing. I know it's mentioned in point 3 and
that the list owners will agree to that, but will 100% of the users know
it? :-)
Aside from this development bit, the machine should be a good host since
it doesn't do anything else. It's a 486/66 with 16M RAM and 540M of disk
space. Note again that at some point it will have to be downgraded to
make performance measurements, but in principle we'll put the SIMMs back
after the tests.
To apply, write to [log in to unmask] and tell us what
your list is about, how many subscribers you have, etc. We're ready to
set up lists as soon as you get us the LIST file. If anyone applies by
posting to the list, the answer is NO :-)
Eric
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