Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Re: Hasan B Mutlu
From: kmcvay@oneb.almanac.bc.ca (Ken Mcvay)
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 92 06:19:41 GMT
Organization: The Old Frog's Almanac, Vancouver Island, CANADA

In article <2AB513DB.5B1A@tct.com> chip@tct.com (Chip Salzenberg) writes:

>According to dave@frackit.UUCP (Dave Ratcliffe):
>>Waffle was neither developed on a Sinclair nor is it a Foobar USenet
>>system.

>It's worse: It was developed under MS-DOS.

>Until the MS-DOS community produces someone sufficiently (1) skilled,
>(2) motivated, and (3) altruistic to write a KILL processor for
>Waffle, lack of a KILL feature will be the price of using Waffle.

>No one is forcing you to use Waffle, you know.

>Users get the OS they deserve.

Hmmm. I've got too much respect for you to try and tear a strip out of your
hide, but perhaps a few comments are in order on behalf of some of those
WaffleDOS folks out there...

I'm a newcomer around here, as UseNet goes - I fumbled my way into a XENIX
system about 4 years' back and finally got away from the fidotech nets. My
newsfeed was long-distance, and it cost me $300 a month to bring the news
into my area - ignoring the cost of the 'Blazer which had to replace my
now-worthless HST :-)

Not until January of this year was I finally able to obtain and enjoy a
local feed - and a full one at that. 

The existence of a "real" UUCP/UseNet system in town led to a lot of
requests for feeds - UFGate was popular at the time, but really sluggish on
even fast machines. It was not until Waffle came down the pike that things
opened up a bit, and the domain began to grow. Of all the alternatives
(FredMail/FrontDoor, UUPC, etc.), Waffle has been the clear favorite.

Waffle wasn't forced upon them, it was simply the best of the bunch, cost
next to nothing to register, and did the job with reasonable efficiency. My
grand-daughter has my old 286 now, running Waffle 1.65, and, at the age of
ten, she enjoys access to UseNet. She can't afford a computer, let alone
UNIX, or some other "real" operating system.

Most of the sites feeding from mine are running Waffle, and DOS, for the
same reason - why, in fact, would anyone (but a nut like you or me) buy UNIX
for a home computer system? Certainly not to multi-task - hell, at today's
prices, it's cheaper to buy separate 386's for Word Perfect, Lotus, and
dBASE than it is to do the job on a UNIX box with a few terminals.

Waffle gets most of the job done, and KILL files will eventually appear in
some fashion or other, but, in the meantime, even as it sits, it's way ahead
in terms of cost-efficiency.

Even on my system, Waffle provides access while giving me (a XENIX rookie)
additional security - I only give shell accounts to trusted friends. I'd
like to provide shell access to everyone, but don't know enough about XENIX
security to feel comfortable doing that - and mine is a public-access system
which provides UseNet/UUCP services at no cost to Waffle users... its
popularity would insure a few hundred applications for shell accounts if
they were available.

Don't be too hard on the Waffle folks, Chip - for many of them, there would
be no access at all without Waffle.



-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Old Frog's Almanac - Public Access UseNet for Central Vancouver Island
     (604) 245-3205 (v32) (604) 245-4366 (2400x4) Waffle XENIX 1.64
Ladysmith, British Columbia, CANADA. kmcvay@oneb.almanac.bc.ca (Ken McVay)
Newsgroups: news.admin