From owner-freebsd-hackers  Sat Jun 22 09:02:54 1996
Return-Path: owner-hackers
Received: (from root@localhost)
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id JAA14801
          for hackers-outgoing; Sat, 22 Jun 1996 09:02:54 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from diablo.ppp.de (diablo.ppp.de [193.141.101.34])
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id JAA14784
          for <hackers@freefall.freebsd.org>; Sat, 22 Jun 1996 09:02:51 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from allegro.lemis.de by diablo.ppp.de with smtp
	(Smail3.1.28.1 #1) id m0uXV95-000Qb8C; Sat, 22 Jun 96 18:02 MET DST
From: grog@lemis.de (Greg Lehey)
Organisation: LEMIS, Schellnhausen 2, 36325 Feldatal, Germany
Phone: +49-6637-919123
Fax:   +49-6637-919122
Received: (grog@localhost) by allegro.lemis.de (8.6.9/8.6.9) 
	id NAA14710; Sat, 22 Jun 1996 13:26:15 +0200
Message-Id: <199606221126.NAA14710@allegro.lemis.de>
Subject: Re: RFC on L.W Jolite books
To: crb@glue.umd.edu (Christopher R. Bowman)
Date: Sat, 22 Jun 1996 13:26:15 +0200 (MET DST)
Cc: hackers@freefall.freebsd.org
In-Reply-To: <v01530500ade822d53dbf@[128.8.22.196]> from "Christopher R. Bowman" at Jun 15, 96 04:23:42 am
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23]
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Sender: owner-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
X-Loop: FreeBSD.org
Precedence: bulk

Christopher R. Bowman writes:
>
> Anybody have a review or comment on the following two books?
> How relevant would these be?
>
> Operating Systems Source Code Secrets (The 386 Bsd Operating System
> Reference, Vol 1)
>
> by L.W Jolite
>
> Volume 1
> Hardcover
> List: $49.95 -- Amazon.com Price: $49.95
> Published by Peer to Peer Communications
> Publication date: February 1, 1996
> ISBN: 1573980269
>
> Virtual Memory System Source Code Secrets (The 386 Bsd Operating System
> Reference, Vol 2)
>
> by L. W. Jolite
>
> Volume 2
> Hardcover
> List: $44.95 -- Amazon.com Price: $44.95
> Published by Peer to Peer Communications
> Publication date: June 1996
> ISBN: 1573980277

Wow, people have really been silent about this one, haven't they?

I don't think it takes much imagination to guess that the authors are
really Lynne and Bill Jolitz.  There's been enough bad press about
them already; all I'd say here is that, a priori, I would expect the
first volume to be mildly relevant, while the second one would be
completely irrelevant.

386BSD is based on the Net/2 release.  Somehow USL and Novell never
bothered to follow up the Jolitz's (everybody else involved had to
commit to moving to 4.4BSD), and they're still using the encumbered
code.  There are a number of similarities, of course, but the FreeBSD
VM system has been completely rewritten, and other BSDs have
significantly changed since the Net/2 days, so I don't know who would
want to buy volume 2.

Having said that, I bought a copy of the "386BSD 1.0 Reference CD-ROM
(directly bootable)" a couple of years ago.  The most expensive CD-ROM
I ever bought ($100), and one of the most useless.  All the
documentation was in a strange format which I had never seen before,
and is completely useless for anybody without the viewer (not
supplied).  The CD-ROM contains no boot code whatsoever.  I feel
cheated by this CD-ROM, and I would be very careful buying a book from
the same authors.  Of course, the book has the advantage that you can
look at it before buying it.

Greg