[Foundation-l] Re: Our exponentially increasing costs (was Re: Re: Answers.com and Wikimedia Foundation to Form New Partnership)

[Jtkiefer]

Tim Starling wrote:

>Brion Vibber wrote:
>  
>
>>Daniel Mayer wrote:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>--- Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net>
>>>wrote:
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>>>Anthony makes a good point.  Hardware does break down over time, and has
>>>>to be replaced.  Even more likely is that it will become obsolete before
>>>>it breaks down.
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>When that becomes a significant issue, then the model will need to be
>>>updated.
>>>I've been told that, so far, pretty much all the hardware we've ever
>>>bought is
>>>still in use.
>>>      
>>>
>>I should point out that it hasn't been that long; we started the Florida
>>cluster in early 2004 following the Great Double Server Crash of
>>Christmas 2003.
>>
>>The oldest machine we have in service is Larousse, an 866-MHz Pentium
>>III which does some specialized and backup services, and used to be our
>>secondary web server in the old California location.
>>
>>Everything else is less than two years old, with the oldest generation
>>being 2.6GHz Pentium IVs. Not quite obsolete yet!
>>
>>A number of machines have had to go out for repair or replacement over
>>time (usually faulty memory, sometimes failed disks), but most are still
>>chugging away.
>>
>>-- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)
>>    
>>
I thought it was generally agreed upon though that rising costs on 
hardware could be compensated for, since users are more than willing to 
donate for hardware costs.  Correct me if I'm wrong but couldn't 
wikimedia just adjust their donation goals to cover that and thus cover 
the cost of new hardware/repairs/upgrades, etc...?

-Jtkiefer