It is so wonderful that we have repositories / archives like FUNET. So much history can be found in one place, along with everything we need to (re)experience what things were like back in the day.
As someone who runs an Aminet mirror (us3.aminet.net, which happens to be hosted on a real Amiga), I'm always grateful and appreciative we have resources like these that aren't based on popularity or on the OS du jour.
Some of the appreciation should go to the academic roots, culture and tradition of the early internet. The internet originated at DARPA but many of the earliest participants and adopters were academic institutions.
FUNET is the Finnish University and Research Network. They provide backbone connectivity and networking facilities to universities in Finland and have done so for decades. They've also run the public FTP archive (actually HTTPS by now) since 1990.
It seems to me that at the time, providing a server that distributed freely distributable and open source software was part of an academic culture of sharing and of providing a public good. (The free software movement also has its roots in the academia. Of course "open source" as a term didn't exist back then, but some of the culture did, without the commercial connotations of open source necessarily.)
In today's rather commercialized world, I appreciate it that a public institution still runs such an archive in a similar spirit with no direct commercial interest. (FUNET is run by a state-owned enterprise.)
Totally agree and thank you for being so perceptive! It was swell to hear someone say aloud "academic culture of sharing and providing for public good". I think that's what humankind would be wise to aim and seek for: equality of all and caring for the welfare of the weakest.
University education does not need to be expensive. On the contrary, it can be free.
Not FUNET but from IBIBLIO I've got the sun multimedia sounds for notifications in my machine along herbe. I use beep_casio.au for some calm and unobstrusive sounds for instance with an IRC client on messages or for SPT (simple pomodoro tecnique) to stop/continue working.
They used to make BD-Rs using this technology, but switched to a cheaper (supposedly not as long lasting) method without any change in branding. It was a minor scandal among datahoarders
As someone who runs an Aminet mirror (us3.aminet.net, which happens to be hosted on a real Amiga), I'm always grateful and appreciative we have resources like these that aren't based on popularity or on the OS du jour.
Thanks, FUNET!