Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usenet
From: gad@eclipse.its.rpi.edu (Garance A. Drosehn)
Subject: Re: CD-ROM Drives
Message-ID: <n=alfda@rpi.edu>
Nntp-Posting-Host: eclipse.its.rpi.edu
References: <1779@toaster.SFSU.EDU>
Date: 22 Jun 91 11:23:56 GMT
Lines: 75

In article <1779@toaster.SFSU.EDU> eps@toaster.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott) writes:
   the "> >"'s are him quoting me (garance)
   the "> >>"'s are him quoting me quoting his earlier message

> >> + unattractive licensing terms have become the norm with CD-ROM
> >>   products
> >
> >Again, that's a problem with the person writing the license,
> 
> I agree!
> 
> >   Nobody is going to force NeXT to write up horrible licensing  
> >terms if NeXT decides to distribute things on CD-ROM drives.
> 
> NeXT doesn't need forcing.  NeXT just has to follow suit.
> I'd love to see NeXT be reasonable, but I just don't think their
> corporate "vision" extends that far.  Besides, NeXT is really
> too small to lead the revolution, all things considered.

My point is that NeXT seems to be doing OK with their floppy drive  
distributions (if I understand the cost of the floppies correctly, and the way  
the distributions are licensed).  Making CD-ROM versions available should not  
force them to change that behavior.  And if their behavior isn't all that good  
right now, well, CD-ROM's won't force them to be any worse.

> >How much to Exabyte drives cost?
> 
> A lot.
> 
> >How fast are they?
> 
> Could be better.
> 
> >How reliable are they?   
> 
> Awesome.  Exabytes are sort of the Telebits of the tape world;
> pricey but soooo much better than anything else.
> 
> >Can you mount an Exabyte and navigate thru it using all the same tools
> >as you use for a hard disk?
> 
> No.  But you can install from it.  We were talking about software
> distribution, right?

Well, I was thinking more of both distribution and backup.  I've nailed myself  
a few times because I've changed some distributed file "with an obvious  
change", only to forget the specifics of it later (and of course I didn't cp  
the "file" to "file~" before making the change, because I was so sure it was an  
obvious and memorable change).

Well, "burned" is too strong a word I guess, because no notable problems have  
resulted from this yet.  It's just that there's been a few times where I've  
wished I could stick a CD-ROM of the original distribution in just to compare  
my /etc/random.file with the original distributed version of it.  I want to  
stick the file in, and just type:
      ls  -lg /etc/random.file /cdrom/etc/random.file
      diff -c /etc/random.file /cdrom/etc/random.file
to refresh my memory.

Note that my scheme is to have the CD-ROM around so I don't have to backup all  
the distributed files to floppies (or tape).  So I want the convenient access  
for the backup/restoration usage.

It would also be particularly nice if the CD-ROM was setup to be a working  
bootable disk.  That way when someone logs into root and trashes their hard  
drive by mistake (already happened once), I could just walk over with a CD-ROM  
drive, boot the CD-ROM, and re-install the distributed system.

Thanks for the info on the Exabyte.  That sounds like it might be worth looking  
into for here sometime (once we have more NeXT's around).

 -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -
Garance Alistair Drosehn     =     gad@eclipse.its.rpi.edu
ITS Systems Programmer            (handles NeXT-type mail)
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute;           Troy NY    USA