From: elendil@mintir.new-orleans.la.us (Edward J. Branley)
Newsgroups: alt.bbs
Subject: Re: Coherent?
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 92 13:01:44 CDT
Organization: Minas Tirith BBS (Public Access Usenet for New Orleans)

steve@Nyongwa.CAM.ORG (Steve M. Robbins) writes:

>
> Yeah the docs for linux suck, and if you get the distributions off the net,
> you are assumed to know a bunch about the ftp and tar...

You know, my biggest gripe with the Linux docs I have is that they just say
'what you need you can get from these sites,' and it lists the sites.  That's
nice, but anon ftp can be downright cryptic if you don't know specifically what
files you're looking for.  The /pub/linux directory at tsx-11.mit.edu (one of
the listed ftp sites) is massive.  Of course, this problem isn't limited to
Linux.  I think every sysop is guilty of cryptic or inadequate file
descriptions at one time or another...

>
> But there are alternatives!
> One distribution (SLS) can be gotten either off the net or ordered by mail
> (which will cost you a bit) and comes as a set of DOS disks -- the first few
> have the kernel and utilities, then there is a few for the compiler, and
> also some extras, including X11 -- you can order to whatever level you want.
>
> I haven't used them, but I understand that they have scripts and help-as-you-
> go to lead the user through partitioning the disk, all the way to setting up
> the linux directories and putting everything on the hard disk.  The first dis
> or two boots from DOS, so you don't need to know anything about unix to get
> it working.  (perhaps only in theory ? )
>

Yeah, I just saw Larry's post with extensive info on SLS.  This really puts
Linux in a different light...

> >        4.  Linux has no SCSI support as of now.  Sure, it's in the works, b
> >            if you've got a SCSI hard drive in your box, it's of no use to y
>
> Er, just what version of linux did you look at?  There's been SCSI support
> since, maybe last spring.  It's not as polished as the IDE support, but it
> does work for many or most types of SCSI controllers.

I'm working with a version from Jan '92.  It's not really a big deal for me at
the moment, since the machine I'm playing with doesn't have SCSI.  However,
I've got a 386sx with a 40meg SCSI drive that I'd like to set up as a
experimental machine.


> >        5.  Many people just don't want to hack at the os level.  Their idea
> >            of learning *nix doesn't include spending a lot of time just
> >            getting the basic tools together.  Most other commercial version
> >            of *nix come with binaries for the basic tools, or at least
> >            source that is easily compiled.  Some folks want to just feed
> >            disks via an install procedure and move on from there.  In many
> >            cases, that install procedure is worth a hundred bucks to them.
>
> This is precisely the population SLS is aimed at.  It is a binary dist. but
> full source for anything is available upon request.
>

Yes, this does rather change things.  Support like you and Larry have described
does indeed move Linux up a notch or two.



>Edward J. Branley         elendil@mintir.new-orleans.la.us<
>Seashell Software, Metairie, LA            +1-504-455-5087<