Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!rutgers!modus!gear!cadlab!martelli
From: martelli@cadlab.sublink.ORG (Alex Martelli)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.wanted
Subject: Re: GNU on tape now available in europe
Keywords: GNU scuzzy source
Message-ID: <814@cadlab.sublink.ORG>
Date: 5 May 91 00:15:43 GMT
References: <1991Apr27.121134.12725@scuzzy.in-berlin.de> <11419@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> <25952@ttidca.TTI.COM>
Distribution: comp
Organization: CAD.LAB, Bologna, Italia
Lines: 40

alter@ttidca.TTI.COM (Steve Alter) writes:
	...
:UUNET Communications sells an 8mm (Exabyte) tape with 600 megabytes
:of stuff including EVERYTHING that Heiko Blume <src@scuzzy.in-berlin.de>
:mentioned in the original posting and lots more, all on one tape, for
:about $170 US.  I don't know if it's available in Europe; call them or

It is, indeed; I ordered it as soon as the announcement was posted in
comp.newproducts or whatever that newsgroup is called.  I don't recall
precisely, but I think I paid something like $190, US (and I was also
SO lucky as to order in the exact period that the US$ was at its
historical low wrt European currencies!-).  The tape read perfectly on
a Sun3 with exabyte and tar, just as long as one DISREGARDS Sun's FM,
which claims that tar, on reading, is able to determine a tape's block
size automatically: in reality, you have to give the blocksize explicitly,
as noticed in the one-line instruction coming with the tape.

:Disclaimer: if you don't have an Exabyte tape drive, then you may have
:a bit of trouble reading this tape.
A friend with an Olivetti workstation with exabyte and SCO Unix was
completely unable to read the tape; I believe, from this experience,
that exabyte tapes must not be completely portable... his drive works,
it can read the tapes it writes, but we can't exchange tapes between
our sites (8mm tapes, I mean; QIC tapes from/to our *other* drives
work perfectly).  UUNET also sells the material (it's 580 megabytes,
actually, NOT a full 600... tch, tch...:-) on 9 inch and QIC formats,
but it's FAR more costly that way (I understand why - the media, the
human work needed, the postage!).
Another caveat:  you're NOT guaranteed to get the most recent version of
everything and anything, just what happens to be archived on UUNET at
the moment.  For example, my tape does have Roell's X386, but only 1.1,
NOT 1.1a, although it was cut in February and Roell has been
distributing 1.1a since, I believe, December; similarly, the Bash is
1.05 (I believe 1.07 is what FSF is now distributing), the gcc is 1.37
(I believe 1.39 is the most recent), and so on.  If you absolutely must
have the latest, keep this in mind!
Me, I'm a happy customer - full archives of comp.sources.{unix,misc,x,
games}, of comp.std.unix, of the freed BSD sources, of X11R4, rfcs, etc.
If I had found a US site willing to let me download everything by phone
I believe the call would have lasted a week...:-)