<s>
Aminet	B-Device
is	O
the	O
world	O
's	O
largest	O
archive	O
of	O
Amiga-related	O
software	O
and	O
files	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Aminet	B-Device
was	O
originally	O
hosted	O
by	O
several	O
universities	O
 '	O
FTP	B-Protocol
sites	O
,	O
and	O
is	O
now	O
available	O
on	O
CD-ROM	B-Device
and	O
on	O
the	O
web	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
According	O
to	O
Aminet	B-Device
,	O
as	O
of	O
3	O
September	O
2022	O
,	O
it	O
has	O
83930	O
packages	O
online	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Soon	O
the	O
archive	O
became	O
mirrored	O
worldwide	O
and	O
in	O
1995	O
started	O
being	O
distributed	O
on	O
monthly	O
CD-ROMs	B-Device
.	O
</s>
<s>
By	O
using	O
a	O
single	O
master	O
site	O
(	O
then	O
wuarchive.wustl.edu	O
)	O
for	O
creating	O
ftp	B-Protocol
scripts	O
for	O
each	O
slave	O
site	O
,	O
Aminet	B-Device
reduced	O
to	O
a	O
bare	O
minimum	O
the	O
effort	O
to	O
set	O
up	O
new	O
mirror	O
sites	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Aminet	B-Device
also	O
illustrates	O
practical	O
use	O
of	O
metadata	O
schema	O
by	O
software	O
repositories	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Reports	O
of	O
daily	O
additions	O
to	O
this	O
software	O
archive	O
were	O
posted	O
automatically	O
to	O
Usenet	B-Application
(	O
de.comp.sys.amiga.archive	O
)	O
,	O
or	O
could	O
be	O
requested	O
as	O
an	O
email	O
newsletter	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Most	O
of	O
the	O
programs	O
on	O
Aminet	B-Device
were	O
public	O
domain	O
or	O
shareware	B-License
,	O
but	O
software	O
companies	O
made	O
updates	O
and	O
demo	O
versions	O
of	O
their	O
programs	O
available	O
as	O
well	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Now	O
Aminet	B-Device
is	O
complemented	O
by	O
platform	O
specific	O
sites	O
archiving	O
software	O
for	O
AmigaOS	B-Application
4	I-Application
,	O
AROS	B-Application
or	O
MorphOS	B-Operating_System
only	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Aminet	B-Device
was	O
an	O
early	O
attempt	O
to	O
create	O
a	O
centralized	O
public	O
archive	O
maintained	O
by	O
the	O
users	O
themselves	O
,	O
predated	O
only	O
by	O
the	O
Info-Mac	B-Operating_System
archive	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Aminet	B-Device
aimed	O
to	O
keep	O
the	O
community	O
united	O
and	O
free	O
to	O
download	O
new	O
open	O
source	O
software	O
,	O
new	O
program	O
demo	O
releases	O
,	O
patches	O
and	O
localization	O
of	O
Amiga	B-Device
programs	O
(	O
AmigaOS	O
and	O
its	O
modern	O
programs	O
are	O
free	O
to	O
be	O
localized	O
by	O
any	O
single	O
user	O
into	O
any	O
country	O
language	O
)	O
,	O
pictures	O
,	O
audio	O
and	O
video	O
files	O
and	O
even	O
hints	O
or	O
complete	O
solutions	O
to	O
various	O
Amiga	B-Device
games	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Recognized	O
among	O
interesting	O
FTP	B-Protocol
sites	O
in	O
early	O
1990s	O
,	O
Aminet	B-Device
was	O
the	O
largest	O
public	O
archive	O
of	O
software	O
for	O
any	O
platform	O
until	O
around	O
1996	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
When	O
the	O
Internet	O
explosion	O
occurred	O
from	O
1996	O
to	O
1999	O
,	O
Aminet	B-Device
rapidly	O
fell	O
behind	O
the	O
emerging	O
massive	O
PC	O
archives	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
During	O
2004	O
the	O
main	O
Aminet	B-Device
mirror	O
suffered	O
from	O
a	O
hard-disk	O
crash	O
and	O
many	O
people	O
considered	O
the	O
whole	O
project	O
dead	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Around	O
the	O
same	O
time	O
,	O
Nicolas	O
Mendoza	O
was	O
setting	O
up	O
a	O
modernized	O
interface	O
that	O
indexed	O
Aminet	B-Device
and	O
provided	O
advanced	O
search	O
features	O
and	O
a	O
modern	O
interface	O
to	O
navigate	O
the	O
tree	O
,	O
called	O
Amirepo	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
He	O
also	O
posted	O
public	O
suggestions	O
on	O
how	O
to	O
help	O
improving	O
Aminet	B-Device
by	O
adding	O
tags	O
for	O
architectures	O
to	O
help	O
catalog	O
the	O
tree	O
that	O
now	O
consisted	O
of	O
MorphOS	B-Operating_System
,	O
AmigaOS	B-Application
4	I-Application
and	O
Amithlon	O
files	O
,	O
in	O
addition	O
to	O
the	O
already	O
existing	O
m68k	B-Device
,	O
PowerUP	O
and	O
WarpOS	B-Device
files	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
also	O
in	O
a	O
future	O
goal	O
of	O
letting	O
Aminet	B-Device
function	O
as	O
a	O
repository	O
for	O
package	O
management	O
systems	O
similar	O
to	O
Debian	O
's	O
APT/DPKG	O
and	O
Red	O
Hats	O
 '	O
RPM	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
He	O
tried	O
to	O
contact	O
individuals	O
like	O
Matthias	O
Scheler	O
and	O
Urban	O
Müller	O
which	O
was	O
known	O
to	O
maintain	O
Aminet	B-Device
,	O
but	O
to	O
no	O
avail	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
At	O
the	O
end	O
of	O
2004	O
Christoph	O
Gutjahr	O
made	O
contact	O
with	O
Urban	O
Müller	O
and	O
set	O
up	O
a	O
team	O
to	O
continue	O
the	O
Aminet	B-Device
effort	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
Amirepo	O
interface	O
of	O
Nicolas	O
Mendoza	O
was	O
integrated	O
and	O
Aminet	B-Device
was	O
officially	O
up	O
and	O
running	O
again	O
in	O
February	O
2005	O
.	O
</s>
