Return to BSD News archive
Xref: sserve comp.sys.sun.misc:15872 comp.unix.admin:23657 comp.unix.bsd:15055 comp.unix.misc:14313
Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!munnari.oz.au!news.Hawaii.Edu!ames!pacbell.com!well!barrnet.net!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!news.umbc.edu!haven.umd.edu!purdue!mozo.cc.purdue.edu!k9!bcr
From: bcr@k9.via.term.none (Bill C. Riemers)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.misc,comp.unix.admin,comp.unix.bsd,comp.unix.misc
Subject: Re: Best Linux CD-ROM !!! Newest Slackware 2.0.1 !!!
Date: 29 Sep 1994 18:02:59 GMT
Organization: Purdue University
Lines: 78
Message-ID: <BCR.94Sep29130259@k9.via.term.none>
References: <36eol7$nh4@openlink.openlink.com>
Reply-To: bcr@physics.purdue.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: bohr.physics.purdue.edu
In-reply-to: roman@btr.btr.com's message of 29 Sep 1994 16:05:59 GMT
>>>>> "Roman" == Roman Yanovsky roman@btr com <roman@btr.btr.com> writes:
Roman> The highlights of this release:
Roman> DOOM for Linux!!! Read-only Double-Space filesystem!
Roman> NCR PCI SCSI. IDE CD-ROM support. TGIF - Xlib based
Roman> interactive 2-D drawing facility under X11. An X server
Roman> for et4000/w32-based boards. Software for the Ham Radio
Roman> enthusiasts. Two sets of compilers and libs - 4.4.4 and
Roman> 4.5.26 Kernels from 1.0.9 to 1.1.50. qfax 1.0 Jazz 1.0 - a
Roman> comfortable MIDI sequencer Easy configuration of Xwindows.
Roman> New NTeX 1.2 BSD Sendmail 8.6.9 util-linux-1.10 term 2.1.0
Roman> calc2.9.3t8 - arbitrary precision calculator. irsim - An
Sounds impressive, but I really hope this list is not order of
importanc, but the order things where added. I'd hate to think
'DOOM' is the best new feature... Sure, it is a fun game, but so
is Tetris, xpilot, etc. Maybe you should make a "games" edition.
There are certainly enough games on the net to support one.
Roman> If you prefer to go through a much more flexible custom
Roman> installation, an MSDOS based program provided on the CD-ROM
Roman> ("install.exe") will help you make the right choice of a
Roman> boot kernel depending on the hardware that you have and
Roman> will actually create the two floppies to be used for Linux
Roman> installation. Furthermore, the "setup" script modified by
Roman> the Trans-Ameritech, will put the kernel used during the
Roman> installation on your hard disk for use with actual
Roman> operation. This guarantees that all the hardware that
Roman> worked during the installation will continue to work
Roman> afterwards.
All of that is nice, but I immagine that most of the readers of this
newsgroups already have Linux installed. So it would be better to
describe how difficult or easy it is to use this CD to update an
existing system. I know from past experience, that upgrading by
installing a new distribution has always been painfull enough that
I'm not likely to do so unless I just had a hard-drive crash or
something else that forces me to re-install anyways... I guess
now I have enough spare 200MB partitions I could just install a
new distribution there, but I'd still have to manually copy alot
configuration files, and user home directories.
Also, while MSDOS support installation attracts alot of new users,
it scares the pants off of me because I've long since have sold
my Windows 3.1 and MSDOS disks. What are the likelyhood I get
your CD and find its installation procedures won't work for me???
In any case I do have one of your Slackware 1.2 CD-ROM editions, that
I bought after my last harddrive crash. Back then I had to use
an MSDOS emergency boot floppy to manually copy stuff to my hard-disk
because the installation procedure didn't work with Mitsumi, and
the Slackware libc was incompatable with my old Linux boot floppy...
It sounds like that problem is at least partially solved. Let
me know if the installation procedure for updates will preserve
my user directories and configuration files. I remember Slackware
1.2 would do stupid things like rm -rf /usr/X386/lib/X11, so that
users would have to write new configuration files. If these problem
has been solved, then you'll probably be able to sell me a
subscription. (Although I'm still gun shy, from JANA's buy 12,
receive 3 which you have to deamand serveral times befor we stop
sending deal. Purhaps if your company is will to accept quarterly
payments for quarterly CD's, I could overcome this.)
Bill