*BSD News Article 1880


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Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!news
From: merlin@neuro.usc.edu (merlin)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd
Subject: Re: 4.4BSD-alpha CDROM
Date: 11 Jul 1992 19:34:35 -0700
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Lines: 26
Sender: merlin@neuro.usc.edu (merlin)
Message-ID: <l5v6hrINNrq2@neuro.usc.edu>
References: <2278@nic.cerf.net> <1760@titccy.cc.titech.ac.jp> <l5v69tINNrp6@neuro.usc.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: neuro.usc.edu
Keywords: cdrom

In article <l5v69tINNrp6@neuro.usc.edu> merlin@neuro.usc.edu (merlin) writes:

Frankly, I don't like the idea at all.  My paid employment is a
grad teaching asst at about $900/mo after taxes.  I am targeting
my 386BSD development for a IBM PC/AT box with a cheap 386SX-25
clone board (which I paid for out of my own pocket), an ancient
AT&T (Toshiba MK56F) 69 MB hard disk, a 1.2 MB floppy drive, an
old WD8003ebt ethernet card, and cheap clone ET-4000 card (also
out of my own meager pocket money).  The whole embargo idea for
more or less 'publically owned' software is unappealing to me.
The concept of shelling out $500+ for a SCSI controller & CDROM
drive -- plus -- another $100 for the CDROM is not good for me.
Indeed, between the added cost of new hardware plus the CDROM I
could almost buy BSDI's BSD386 with a full year of real support.
But, I don't have either $500 or $1,000 just laying around - my
cash goes to pay mandatory fees, rent, food, and daily expenses.

CRSG has done a lot for the free 386BSD distribution.  If they
promised to put out a complete working free source code version
of 386BSD together with documentation within some finite time
in exchange for their 'suggested donation' then I might feel a
bit better about not being able to get my hands on the updated
sources for a short time.  But, if on the other hand, there is
no such promise -- plus -- the prospect that they will also ask
for an embargo on the free 386BSD source code distribution when
it is finally available, then I think the embargo is a bad idea.