[Scummvm-devel] About announcing backend changes & build machine

[Max Horn]

OK, seems the idea of a build server is met mostly with positive  
reactions.

Now to make it happen. First thing, we need a machine. Either one  
owned by one of us and hosted there. Or we rent a server, resp.,  
maybe a VPS (virtual private server) would be enough. Some things to  
consider are:
* security maintanance: it would be an interesting target for  
hackers, esp. if we released its builds to the public -- hence  
security is important, and maybe we should not offer daily builds  
from this at all..
* availability of the machine: it must exist ;)
* accessibility: we need to be able to access it via SSH, ideally  
with personalized accounts
* resources: speed, memory, HD storage
* net connection
* price

Possible options:
- *Maybe* Claudo can again host a build server, but it's not at all  
clear whether and when that happens.
- somebody else hosting. Must be somebody we know and trust
- rent a VPS. E.g. HostEurope (hoster of our forums & wiki) offers  
systems beteen 10 and 50 Euros/month. See <http://www.hosteurope.de/ 
produkte/VPS-Linux> (and use <http://dict.leo.org> or babelfish if  
you don't speak german *g*)
- rent a "full" server. Again at HE this starts at 150 Euro/Month  
(see <http://www.hosteurope.de/produkte/Server-XL-XXL>), but of  
course there are plenty of cheaper alternatives. Suggestions are  
welcome, but again, we must be able to trust the company (in terms of  
availability, how they treat our data etc.)
- other suggestions?

How to finance this:
We still have money in the account Ender maintains from the last fund  
raiser, though I don't know how much. We could run another fund  
raiser, of course. We also have some money from GSoC 2007 (~2500  
Euro, minus what we need to finance various software subscription  
fees and the costs for the HostEurope accounts, which leaves us with  
1000-1500 or o). Assuming we get a similar amount from GSoC 2008,  
this would easily suffice to sustain our needs.


Cheers,
Max