Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!sharkey!teemc!ka3ovk!drilex!axiom!linus!mbunix!jcmorris
From: jcmorris@mbunix.mitre.org (Joseph C. Morris)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: MINIX 1.3 upgrade kit now available from P-H
Summary: They delivered it quickly!
Keywords: MINIX upgrade
Message-ID: <46925@linus.UUCP>
Date: 24 Mar 89 20:12:32 GMT
References: <2151@ast.cs.vu.nl> <46558@linus.UUCP>
Sender: news@linus.UUCP
Reply-To: jcmorris@mbunix (Morris)
Organization: The MITRE Corporation, McLean, VA.
Lines: 45

On 16 March I called Prentiss-Hall to order the MINIX 1.3 upgrade;
for the benefit of others planning to do so I posted to the net a
short summary of the critical info (phone number, etc.).  I also
wondered just how long the P-H people would take to ship the disks,
since they were incredibly slow in shipping the original disks and 
have an abysmal reputation for slow response to orders from bookstores.

Yesterday (23 March, exactly one week after I ordered the disks) my
post office delivered them to my mailbox.  It appears that someone at
P-H has managed to fix whatever was causing the agonizing delays which
had been plaguing too many P-H customers in the past.  I have no idea
who that might be, but my thanks to him or her.

On the other hand...

I've got two potential squawks about the upgrade; one or both may turn
out to be misplaced since I've not had a chance to take a deep look at
the files:

1.  There is no printed documentation with the update package.  Aside 
    from the address label and stickers on the diskettes, the only
    printed material is (1) the shrink-wrap license agreement and (2)
    a sticker on disk #1 saying that technical questions should be
    directed to ast@cs.vu.nl (yes, they give the USENET address).  There
    is no information about how to install the updates.  (The 
    instructions are in machine-readable form on disk #4, but you 
    have to know enough to mount the disk to MINIX and retrieve the
    data.)  It's not that difficult for somebody with a decent experience
    level, but it's not something you want a newly-minted novice to have
    to figure out on his/her own.

2.  The shrink-wrap license (which is specifically for MINIX; it's not the
    usual boiler-plate text) seems to withdraw the permission P-H previously
    gave for limited redistribution of the MINIX machine readable material.
    It says something like "you may not transfer ownership of the machine
    readable material except as provided elsewhere in this agreement", but
    nowhere in the license does it have a discussion of the conditions which
    must be met.  I haven't checked main to see if they've changed the
    copyright header in the machine-readable material.

I probably won't get a chance to work with the updates for several weeks
(minor stuff like tax forms and off-site meetings and such).  Does anyone
among the bleeding-edge crowd have any experience installing the updates?

Joe Morris