From samba!concert!news-feed-1.peachnet.edu!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!wupost!uunet!mcsun!news.funet.fi!hydra!hydra!not-for-mail Fri May 14 13:56:23 EDT 1993 Article: 665 of comp.os.linux.announce Path: samba!concert!news-feed-1.peachnet.edu!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!wupost!uunet!mcsun!news.funet.fi!hydra!hydra!not-for-mail From: sanjuan!pmacdona@sol.UVic.CA (Peter MacDonald) Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.announce Subject: SLS Announce: CDROM shipping Followup-To: comp.os.linux Date: 14 May 1993 19:09:00 +0300 Organization: University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, CANADA Lines: 97 Sender: wirzeniu@cs.Helsinki.FI Approved: linux-announce@tc.cornell.edu (Lars Wirzenius) Message-ID: <1t0g6sINN3t4@hydra.Helsinki.FI> NNTP-Posting-Host: hydra.helsinki.fi Keywords: SLS, CDROM, commercial Softlanding Software announces the SLS CDROM, will be shipping next week. Here is a partial list of what it contains: - the SLS 1.02 packages (features 99p9 kernel and libc 4.3.3) - SLS 1.02 unpacked and pre-installed - the SLS source tree - Werner's Inherited File System (IFS) - mit and contrib X dists - misc X windows srcs (like interviews and the TK X tool kit) - sources for non-SLS things (like snd-kit and rlab) - unsupported Linux patch src (like Xenix fs and kdebug) - two boot disks (3 & 5) - at least 1 patch floppy (contains updates) - the booklet, Using SLS In short, as much as could be crammed into about 550 Meg on the CD. Things such as multimedia (sound and graphics support) are a given. Just a few words about a couple of the above items: The first item, the SLS 1.02 distribution, is included in both packed and unpacked form. The unpacked form, of course, allows access to all the distribution contents without having to install the entire system onto a hard drive. Infrequently used man pages and executables may best be used directly from the CD. Inclusion of the packaged release serves several purposes. It allows installing from the CD. It also permits the floppy distribution to be easily generated from the CD, even from DOS! This means that each SLS CD is a miniture floppy distribution producing facility. More importantly, it also means that, even if Linux does not currently have a device driver for your particular CDROM drive, you can still install and use SLS on your hard drive, just by copying the files either to DOS floppies or to a DOS hard drive partition, and then installing from there. All that is required is a DOS device driver for your particular CDROM drive. As with the floppy distribution, the boot disks can be used to install from HD, FD, Network, CD or Tape. The inherited file system, IFS, is the key to the effective use of the online source and data for read-only media such as CDROM. It allows a read-only directories to be mapped over by a writable directory, such that only the modified files occupy space in the writable directory. Gross networks of symbolic links are unecessary. Complete directory heirarchies are mapped at a stroke, rather than just the contents of one directory at a time. The booklet, Using SLS, has several parts. The first, describes the various installation procedures and options at your disposal, and gives example installs. The second section is of the format "A Day In The Life Of The Linux Hacker". It depicts a somewhat contrived session that attempts to take the user on as complete a tour through the SLS system and it's facilities as possible. Pains are taken not only to describe what kinds of problems are met, but also how and where answers to these problems are found. We end up with a survey of the major subsystems of SLS, touching briefly on topics such as using GhostScript, GCC, term and TeX. The goal of this guide is brevity rather than comprehensiveness, which is better handled by online documentation. The SLS CDROM is available for $99.00 US, plus $15.00 shipping and handling from. Softlanding Software 910 Lodge Ave. Victoria, B.C., Canada V8X-3A8 (604) 360-0188, FAX (604) 385-1292 Quantity pricing for resellers is also available. FLOPPIES: Someone pointed out that the SLS readme had the wrong prices for floppies. Thus, here is the corrected extract, now updated on tsx-11: SLS is available from the address below for a $3.50/disk US ($4.50/disk Canadian) copying charge. Add $1.00/disk for 3 1/2" disks, and $15.00 for shipping and handling. Mail payment, either cheque or money order, in advance, to Softlanding. Visa and Mastercard are now also accepted, albeit with a 4% surcharge. Because people keep asking about prices, Softlanding has provided this commonly ordered configurations price sheet: NAME #DISKS SERIES 5 1/4 DISKS 3 1/2 DISKS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- TINY 4 a US $29.00 (CDN $33.00) US $33.00 (CDN $37.00) BASE 17 a,b,c,d,s US $74.50 (CDN $91.50) US $91.50 (CDN $108.50) MAIN 24 a,b,c,x US $99.00 (CDN $123.00) US $123.00 (CDN $147.00) FULL 30 a,b,c,x,d,s,t US $120.00 (CDN $150.00) US $150.00 (CDN $180.00) When ordering, ensure that you specify the bootdisk type (3 1/2 or 5 1/4). Softlanding is also now offering support subscriptions for SLS. Individual support, (one user, one machine) is $100.00 per year. Group support, primarily for resellers and corporate sites is $1000.00 per year. CDROM ($99) and QIC-150 tape ($150) also available. See Softlanding for a gentle touch down from a DOS bailout.