Date: Mon, 2 Jan 1995 00:48:29 +0100 From: Julian H Stacey <Julian.H.Stacey@regent.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de> To: hackers@freebsd.org Cc: n1epo4tl@ibmmail.com Subject: 386BSD CD-ROM - A review. Message-ID: <95Jan2.004842met.43124@eikon.regent.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de>
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FreeBSD Hackers,
A friend (n1epo4tl@ibmmail.com) loaned me the Dr Dobbs 386BSD Rel. 1.0 CD-ROM.
The friend who loaned it to him paid an amazing 200 German Marks (DM) for it !
( ~1.5 DM = $1 US).
It seems likely many people won't bother to look at it on grounds of price,
if nothing else, unless much cheaper elsewhere, so
I append below a review, those uninterested please skip :-)
Cover claims:
It has src, bin, anotations, articles.
It claims support for Adaptec 154x & Mitsumi, ISA, EISA, VLB.
No mention of A-174x, Bustec, PCI, or which of 4.4/4.3 base was used.
It has X11R5 (Huh ! old !), C++ (no version. stated on cover),
WAIS, Mosaic, Gopher.
It has an install proc that can start from MS-Windows,
the CD for installation must be local (not via a net).
RELEASE.TXT on CD makes mention of `PCI/VESA bus',
but that file suffers serious bit rot, so I wouldn't trust it
(scattered ^M, several ^Z, numerous lines broken & half repeated,
tell one, this file was not last edited by a Unix person
happily working a unix editor; this cd-rom file is dos-damaged ;-)
RELEASE.TXT also says:
`In addition, no work from the incomplete 4.4 Lite was
include in this release'
CD has a more extensive colour printed CD-box-enclosed-booklet than FreeBSD.
As usual, Bill J. keeps his email adr. a secret, the cd offers
sbarnes@mfi.com for installation help.
The legal stuff regarding rights to copy etc (liner page 13, para 1):
- Hard to understand, seems to be effectively:
do not keep copies if you do not keep CD.
- Reading it here in Germany it claims (in English)
to require California Law. I don't know how German Law views this.
- All the printed contract clause are invalid in England, as test case
(v. National Car Parks) ruling established that contract clauses
hidden from view till after payment are void (which is why U turns
were installed some years back on inbound car queues in front of
NCP ticket machines, but after sign boards with contract exclusions).
(CD Clauses are in liner book, inside CD box, in sealed cellophane
vendor wrapper). Stuart tore the cellophane wrapper off,
but I guess there was nothing printed on it.
- A quick look on CD:
/COPYRGHT.TXT:
------
* 5. Non-commercial distribution of the complete source and/or binary
* release at no charge to the user (such as from an official Internet
* archive site) is permitted.
* 6. Commercial distribution and sale of the complete source and/or binary
* release on any media, including that of floppies, tape, or CD-ROM, or
* through a per-charge download such as that of a BBS, is not permitted
* without specific prior written permission.
* 7. Non-commercial and/or commercial distribution of an incomplete,
* altered, or otherwise modified source and/or binary release is not
* permitted.
* 8. Non-commercial and/or commercial incorporation and distribution of
* any components, programs, files, and other modules derived from the
* source and/or binary release is not permitted without specific prior
* written permission, except where stated by the author as in the
* copyright disclaimerright disclaimer of the source code component, progr
am, file, or
* other module in question.
------
Synopsis: Much harder to use legally, compared with FreeBSD.
CD Sales Tel.: +1 415 655 4190
CD Content:
I have v. little time to look at the CD content, & doubt I ever will,
The 600 M CD will probably fit on a 525M tape with tar cz,
(cycling round here on snow, with a 200 DM CD in the pocket is risky).
If any people with freefall logins _really_ want to look at the CD,
mail me, when I'm next on line, I'll mount the CD, ping you, & you can
have a browse over the internet (I'm only dial up slip connected,
so not reachable most of time).
I did try:
cd /cdrom/bin ; ./ls -l
it worked !
/usr/bin/file /bin/ls ./ls
/bin/ls: FreeBSD/i386 demand paged executable
./ls: demand paged executable
cd ../usr/bin ; ./file ./file /usr/bin/file
./file:
./file: type belong =65538 - pre SR9.5 invalid
./file: type belong =65539 - post SR9.5 invalid
./file: type beshort 2 - object archive invalid
<tons more stuff deleted>
/usr/bin/file: data
Conclusion: I'll stick to FreeBSD (of course!) :-)
Disclaimer:
I have no connection with Bill J, or DDJ.
I run FreeBSD-current on my I-486, & NetBSD-current on my NSC-32532.
PS I'm running behind on all mail I won't see any response for some while.
---
Julian Stacey <stacey@freefall.cdrom.com>
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