[fpc-pascal] FTP support gone - switch to HTTP ?

[Michael Van Canneyt via fpc-pascal]

Hello,

Mattias Gaertner pointed out that Chrome no longer supports FTP downloads.

I know that Firefox will follow suit really soon (if they haven't already).
Since Edge now also uses Chromium, they will soon also have this disabled.

This wil surely cause problems for many users.

So I think we should start making the FTP server downloads available through HTTP(s)
instead of FTP. I also think we should do this for 3.2.2.
(the pages are auto-generated from some base URLS, so this should not be a lot of work)

It should be sufficient to have a virtual host that points
to the ftp directory of the current FPC's ftp dir.

Charlie, is this an option for you ?

If you want, I can create a new DNS:

downloads.freepascal.org

which you can then use to set up the virtual host.
I don't think HTTPS is a necessity, but if you prefer that is also good of
course...

When that is done, the links on the download page can be switched to http(s).

Michael.
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[Michael Van Canneyt via fpc-pascal]

Apologies, typed the wrong email alias.
This was meant to go to the core list.

The problem is real, though... Consider it a heads up :-)

Michael.

Post by Michael Van Canneyt via fpc-pascal
Hello,
Mattias Gaertner pointed out that Chrome no longer supports FTP downloads.
I know that Firefox will follow suit really soon (if they haven't already).
Since Edge now also uses Chromium, they will soon also have this disabled.
This wil surely cause problems for many users.
So I think we should start making the FTP server downloads available through HTTP(s)
instead of FTP. I also think we should do this for 3.2.2.
(the pages are auto-generated from some base URLS, so this should not be a lot of work)
It should be sufficient to have a virtual host that points
to the ftp directory of the current FPC's ftp dir.
Charlie, is this an option for you ?
downloads.freepascal.org
which you can then use to set up the virtual host.
I don't think HTTPS is a necessity, but if you prefer that is also good of
course...
When that is done, the links on the download page can be switched to http(s).
Michael.
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[Karoly Balogh via fpc-pascal]

Hi,

Post by Michael Van Canneyt via fpc-pascal
I know that Firefox will follow suit really soon (if they haven't already).
Since Edge now also uses Chromium, they will soon also have this disabled.
This wil surely cause problems for many users.
So I think we should start making the FTP server downloads available through HTTP(s)
instead of FTP. I also think we should do this for 3.2.2.
(the pages are auto-generated from some base URLS, so this should not be a lot of work)

Agreed. This is something I wanted to raise already, but somehow it always
fell between the cracks.

Post by Michael Van Canneyt via fpc-pascal
It should be sufficient to have a virtual host that points
to the ftp directory of the current FPC's ftp dir.
Charlie, is this an option for you ?

Certainly. See below.

Post by Michael Van Canneyt via fpc-pascal
downloads.freepascal.org
which you can then use to set up the virtual host.
I don't think HTTPS is a necessity, but if you prefer that is also good of
course...

I think HTTPS is certainly a good practice in 2021, and it's easy to set
up with LetsEncrypt. So that shouldn't be a problem.

Post by Michael Van Canneyt via fpc-pascal
When that is done, the links on the download page can be switched to http(s).

Yes, this is something I wanted to do Real Soon Now(tm). I'd actually keep
FTP enabled, as it doesn't hurt anything and it's still a thing for retro
downloads. But I planned to also offer HTTP and HTTPS.

The problem is, I also wanted to migrate away from the old FTP host
machine in the meantime, as that had disk I/O errors... but I never
finished setting up the new VM. I can attend to this this weekend. Is that
too late for 3.2.2, and we need it earlier? Maybe I can squeeze it in
during the week.

Charlie
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[Graeme Geldenhuys via fpc-pascal]

Post by Karoly Balogh via fpc-pascal
I'd actually keep
FTP enabled, as it doesn't hurt anything and it's still a thing for retro
downloads.

Not just "retro" but a more efficient and faster protocol for file downloads.
Unfortunately the whole world is going HTTP crazy and thinks everything should
go over it, including the kitchen sink.

So yes, it would be nice if FTP access can still be left in place.

Regards,
Graeme
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[Michael Van Canneyt via fpc-pascal]

Post by Graeme Geldenhuys via fpc-pascal

Post by Karoly Balogh via fpc-pascal
I'd actually keep
FTP enabled, as it doesn't hurt anything and it's still a thing for retro
downloads.

Not just "retro" but a more efficient and faster protocol for file downloads.
Unfortunately the whole world is going HTTP crazy and thinks everything should
go over it, including the kitchen sink.

I'm old enough to remember the time when I used the NCSA and netscape browsers
with the Gopher protocol. Apparently it still exists, on about 300 sites :-)

Michael.
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[Tomas Hajny via fpc-pascal]

Post by Michael Van Canneyt via fpc-pascal

Post by Graeme Geldenhuys via fpc-pascal

Post by Karoly Balogh via fpc-pascal
I'd actually keep
FTP enabled, as it doesn't hurt anything and it's still a thing for retro
downloads.

Not just "retro" but a more efficient and faster protocol for file downloads.
Unfortunately the whole world is going HTTP crazy and thinks
everything should
go over it, including the kitchen sink.

I'm old enough to remember the time when I used the NCSA and netscape browsers
with the Gopher protocol. Apparently it still exists, on about 300 sites :-)

I'm old enough to remember that standalone Gopher clients existed well
before NCSA Mosaic. ;-) Fortunately, there's plenty of standalone FTP
clients including those with GUI add-ons, we can point out this fact in
our release communication as well. Out of those mentioned on the
respective Wikipedia page
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_FTP_client_software),
WinSCP (MS Windows), gFTP (Linux) and Cyberduck (OSX and MS Windows)
might be worth mentioning (to cover the major platforms); possibly also
FAR Manager with its FTP plugin (MS Windows, Linux, *BSD, OSX) to extend
the coverage to *BSD as well (although that's rather TUI than GUI).

Tomas
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[Sven Barth via fpc-pascal]

Post by Tomas Hajny via fpc-pascal

Post by Michael Van Canneyt via fpc-pascal

Post by Graeme Geldenhuys via fpc-pascal

Post by Karoly Balogh via fpc-pascal
I'd actually keep
FTP enabled, as it doesn't hurt anything and it's still a thing for retro
downloads.

Not just "retro" but a more efficient and faster protocol for file downloads.
Unfortunately the whole world is going HTTP crazy and thinks everything should
go over it, including the kitchen sink.

I'm old enough to remember the time when I used the NCSA and netscape browsers
with the Gopher protocol. Apparently it still exists, on about 300 sites :-)

I'm old enough to remember that standalone Gopher clients existed well
before NCSA Mosaic. ;-) Fortunately, there's plenty of standalone FTP
clients including those with GUI add-ons, we can point out this fact in
our release communication as well. Out of those mentioned on the
respective Wikipedia page
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_FTP_client_software),
WinSCP (MS Windows), gFTP (Linux) and Cyberduck (OSX and MS Windows)
might be worth mentioning (to cover the major platforms); possibly also
FAR Manager with its FTP plugin (MS Windows, Linux, *BSD, OSX) to extend
the coverage to *BSD as well (although that's rather TUI than GUI).

I don't think we need to mention any specific clients (and why did your
list not include Filezilla? :P )

Regards,
Sven

[Henry Vermaak via fpc-pascal]

On Tue, 18 May 2021 at 11:50, Sven Barth via fpc-pascal

I don't think we need to mention any specific clients (and why did your list not include Filezilla? :P )

Because FileZilla bundles adware when you download from the homepage?
Would actually be good to warn _against_ using it.

Henry
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[Bo Berglund via fpc-pascal]

On Tue, 18 May 2021 16:20:29 +0100, Henry Vermaak via fpc-pascal

Post by Henry Vermaak via fpc-pascal
On Tue, 18 May 2021 at 11:50, Sven Barth via fpc-pascal

I don't think we need to mention any specific clients (and why did your list not include Filezilla? :P )

Because FileZilla bundles adware when you download from the homepage?
Would actually be good to warn _against_ using it.
Henry

Do you mean that when you use Filezilla to download a file you also get adware
files transfered? Never ever seen that.
I have used Filezilla successfully for many-many years and it works very well
IMO.

[Tomas Hajny via fpc-pascal]

Post by Bo Berglund via fpc-pascal
On Tue, 18 May 2021 16:20:29 +0100, Henry Vermaak via fpc-pascal

Post by Henry Vermaak via fpc-pascal
On Tue, 18 May 2021 at 11:50, Sven Barth via fpc-pascal

Post by Sven Barth via fpc-pascal
I don't think we need to mention any specific clients (and why did
your list not include Filezilla? :P )

Because FileZilla bundles adware when you download from the homepage?
Would actually be good to warn _against_ using it.
Henry

Do you mean that when you use Filezilla to download a file you also get adware
files transfered? Never ever seen that.
I have used Filezilla successfully for many-many years and it works very well
IMO.

No, it was related to Filezilla installation
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FileZilla#Bundled_adware_issues). Please,
stop discussing specific FTP clients on this list - if you want to
continue, use fpc-other.

Tomas
(one of FPC mailing list administrators)
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[Graeme Geldenhuys via fpc-pascal]

Post by Sven Barth via fpc-pascal
I don't think we need to mention any specific clients (and why did your
list not include Filezilla? :P )

+1 on both counts. :-D


Regards,
Graeme
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[wkitty42--- via fpc-pascal]

Post by Michael Van Canneyt via fpc-pascal
I know that Firefox will follow suit really soon (if they haven't already).

it has... in version 88.0.0 IIRC...