*BSD News Article 10616


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From: hasty@netcom.com (Amancio Hasty Jr)
Subject: Re: 386BSD.EXE - Let DOS handle booting?
Message-ID: <1993Jan31.225910.4097@netcom.com>
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
References: <BLYMN.93Jan23152157@siren.awadi.com.au> <1993Jan30.235814.11944@netcom.com> <PC123.93Jan31193045@apus.cus.cam.ac.uk>
Date: Sun, 31 Jan 1993 22:59:10 GMT
Lines: 43

In article <PC123.93Jan31193045@apus.cus.cam.ac.uk> pc123@cus.cam.ac.uk (Pete Chown) writes:
>In article <1993Jan30.235814.11944@netcom.com> hasty@netcom.com (Amancio Hasty Jr) writes:
>
>   Have you ever heard of an option? [ to boot 386BSD from DOS ]
>   Let's make this VERY clear: There are many hardware manufacturers who
>   love to keep their hardware/software interfaces secret 
>
>   [ ... ]
>
>   So for the folks who have common sense, lets just do it.  [ add the
>   option ]
>
>Go and write it then.  But remember, 386BSD is supposed to be a free
>operating system.  If it depends on a bootstrap loader that costs
>money, then it will not be.  And it will depend on it if you can't
>otherwise run your hardware properly.
>--

for a long time, people with Diamond Stealth were stuck just because we
didn't know how to initialize their card. so think about it probably
when they bought their card it cost $300. There are a lot of folks who
already have dos, I do. So if you really wanted to use the Stealth
back then, in the PD arena the best option was to initialize it under
DOS.

I was lucky I dump my Stealth very quickly and I am sad that I did not
do the same with my qic80 Colorado Tape Drive. Total investment in
incompatible hardware $550. again, I took my Stealth back so the total
lost is know $250.

Lets look at it from another angle, if you ask me to provide support for
an obscure interface, you are asking for time and in my case time is money,
I am a consultant. So its a balancing act... When I do something for
386bsd is because I love to do it :-)

 Regards,
	Amancio

-- 
This message brought to you by the letters X and S and the number 3
Amancio Hasty           |  
Home: (415) 495-3046    |  ftp-site depository of all my work:
e-mail hasty@netcom.com	|  sunvis.rtpnc.epa.gov:/pub/386bsd/incoming