The Center for Academic Computing now provides an
Open Source Software (OSS) mirror site at
ftp://mirror.cac.psu.edu and
http://mirror.cac.psu.edu. A mirror site is a Web site
that monitors one or more main software distribution sites
and keeps copies of their data locally. Having a local mirror site
enables Penn State students, faculty, and staff to access the hosted
software quickly and reliably, because it provides computer users with
local access to software, as opposed to remote access.
Since the mirror site went public on June 1 it has received over 1.3 million hits by over 20,000 unique sites for over 10.5 terabytes of data (this is the equivalent to the transmission of over 10 million reams of single-spaced typed pages). In August alone, 3.5 terabytes of data were delivered by the mirror site. Forty gigabytes of this number were delivered to Penn State, while 390 gigabytes were delivered to other educational organizations.
The mirror site acts as a repository for a wide range of Open Source Software. While the GNU/Linux operating system has recently experienced an explosion of popularity and extensive media coverage, it is only one of many important Open Source projects.
The Berkeley-based Unix distributions (such as FreeBSD and OpenBSD), the Apache Web server, and the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) are just a few of the Open Source resources used extensively in critical applications. For example, the popular web-based e-mail service Hotmail runs off of FreeBSD and the Apache Web server is the most widely used Web server in the world. In addition, the mirror site also houses several GNU/Linux distributions such as RedHat, Mandrake, Debian, and LinuxPPC, the Linux Kernel Archives, the Comprehensive Tex Archive Network (CTAN), and the Free Software Foundation's GNU FTP archives. Plans are underway to make more software available from the mirror site.
Please direct any requests, questions, or comments to ftpkeeper@carroll.cac.psu.edu.