Subject: Linux/GNU/X UNIX(R) clone for PC's: beta CDROM now available
From: [email-masked] (Yggdrasil Computing, Incorporated)
Date: Sun, 21 Feb 1993 07:43:33 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.announce,comp.newprod,alt.cdrom,comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit,gnu.misc.discuss

THE YGGDRASIL LINUX/GNU/X OPERATING SYSTEM DISTRIBUTION
                              BETA CDROM

CONTENTS:
        Executive summary
        Contents of the beta release
        How to get more information
        Hardware requirements
        How to get a free copy
        How to buy a copy
        Reseller list
        Service vendors
        Direct sales order form

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY                                       18 February 1993

        Yggdrasil Computing, Incorporated is now shipping a beta CDROM
release of a bootable Linux/GNU/X-based UNIX(R) clone for PC
compatibles, tentatively named LGX.  The system uses version 0.99.5 of the
Linux kernel, which is being developed from scratch by Linus Torvalds
and an international group of skilled contributors working over the
internet to complete the GNU project.

        LGX beta is the first PC UNIX(R) clone to include multimedia
facilities as part of its base configuration.  The beta release also
features X-windows, networking, a complete source tree (including X
windows and TeX), a demonstration facility, an easy installation
mechanism, and the ability to run directly from the CDROM.

        Some of the otherwise unused space on the CDROM has been used
to distribute other interesting software.  On the beta release, this
space holds a copy of the X11R5 MIT contrib tree with an updated
version of the Andrew multimedia system.  Future releases will include
different things in the otherwise unused CDROM space.

        The LGX beta CDROM is in standard ISO-9660 format with
Rockridge extensions, so it can easily be browsed from other types of
computers or other operating systems.

	Yggdrasil is greatly indebted to the many free software
developers whose efforts have made this release possible.  As a token
of appreciation, anyone who has made a major contribution to the LGX
beta software can get a free copy, which includes the CD, manual, and
boot floppies.  Otherwise, the price is $60.  The beta release plus
the first production release can be purchased together for $99.  You
can order directly from Yggdrasil or through a reseller in the United
States or Europe.

        For more information, call (510) 526-7531 or send mail to
[email-masked].  Reseller and service vendor inquiries welcome.

UNIX is a registered trademark of Unix System Laboratories, Inc.
Yggdrasil Computing, Incorporated has no affiliation with Unix System
Laboratories, Inc.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

CONTENTS OF THE BETA RELEASE

        Almost every piece of software on the distribution has been
updated since the previous December 8th alpha release.  The 34,557
files on this plug-and-play CDROM include:

    SOURCE CODE
        o  Complete source tree, including X (with Xfree86 1.1
           code) and TeX sources.  You cannot yet do a complete
           build from the top of this tree, but you should be able
           to easily find the source code for any binary on the CD.
        o SPECIAL FOR THE BETA RELEASE: the complete X11R5 MIT contrib
          tree with the Andrew 5.0 tree replaced by a snapshot of an
          Andrew 5.1 tree in the process of being ported to Linux
          (this is not automatically installed as part of any
          installation, but it makes the CD useful for reference even
          after the beta release has been superseded),

    USER INTERFACE FACILITIES: X-WINDOWS AND MULTIMEDIA
        o  X windows (X11R5) for S3, 8514/A and VGA displays using
           ET4000, ET3000, Paradise, Trident 8900c, Genoa, or
           ATI VGA Wonder chipsets.  (NOTE: due to trade secrecy
           Diamond Stealth is not supported),
        o  The full motion video (MPEG) viewer from Professor
           Larry Rowe's research group at UC Berkeley.
        o  Sound players and Hannu Savolainen's drivers for the
           AdLib, SoundBlaster 1.0-2.0 (and compatibles including
           ThunderBoard and Ati Stereo F/X), SoundBlaster Pro,
           and ProAudioSpectrum 16.  (ProAudioSpectrum+ is not
           supported yet.  The original ProAudioSpectrum is not
           supported nor is it likely to be supported the near
           future.)
        o  CD audio support,
        o  Tcl, Tk, wish and expect.  Tcl is a scripting language
           ("tool command language") written by Professor
           John Ousterhout at UC Berkeley.  Tk is a toolkit that
           allows one to quickly write X-windows programs in Tcl.
           Wish is a Tk/Tcl interpretter.  The beta distribution
           includes versions of wish with support for "drag and drop"
           applications, and compound documents and hypertext.  Expect
           is a system written in Tcl Don Libes that "performs
           programmed dialogue with other interactive programs."

    ETHERNET NETWORKING: TCP/IP and NFS
        o simple installation script,
        o clients: finger, ftp, nslookup and its cousins, ping, rcp,
          rlogin, rsh, talk, telnet, tftp.
        o daemons: fingerd, ftpd, inetd, ntalkd, rshd, telnetd, tftpd,
        o name server support,
        o ethernet card drivers which support the following cards and
          their clones:
            - 3Com 3c503, 3c503/16
            - NE1000, NE2000, National Semiconductor, Cabletron
            - Western Digital WD8003, WD8013, SMC elite
            - Western Digital wd8003/wd8013
        o user-level NFS daemon,
        o support for mounting NFS filesystems,

    SYSTEM V/SCO-RELATED FEATURES
        o  System V primitives for interprocess communication and
           shared memory,
        o  the Xenix file system support,
        o  MS-DOS filesystem (usable on both floppy disks and
           hard disk partitions),
        o  a BIOS emulator that can run DOS,

    DOCUMENT PREPARATION
        o  ghostscript: a postscript interpreter for X windows,
           faxes and a variety of printers,
        o  TeX and groff typesetting packages with X previewers,

    DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT
        o  elvis and GNU emacs text editors,
        o  the standard Xlib/Xt X windows libraries,
        o  the GNU C and C++ compilers
        o  f2c FORTRAN-to-C translator,
        o  GNU debugger
        o  GNU make,
        o  bison and flex

    FILESYSTEMS
        o  a BSD-like filesystem with long file names, symbolic links,
           and FIFO's,
        o  iso9660 CDROM filesystem, plus Rockridge support,
        o  MINIX filesystem,
        o  DOS and Xenix fileystems (mentioned above)

    MISCELLANEOUS
        o  Support for the Sony CDU31A (non-scsi) CDROM drive,
        o  kermit and Z-modem telecommunications programs.

HOW TO GET MORE INFORMATION

        The anonymous FTP area netcom.com:pub/yggdrasil contains more
information, including an "ls -RC" listing of the CD's contents,
reseller information, and copies of the manual in texinfo, DVI and
postscript.  If you want to view the DVI version of the manual with
xdvi, you can go to the table of contents with the command "84g".

        If you have questions, you can call (510) 526-7531, fax (510)
528-8508, or send mail to [email-masked].

REQUIRED HARDWARE

        CPU:    Any 386/486-class CPU
        RAM:    8 megabytes

        CDROM drive (only required for installation):
            Sony CDU-31A with its standard controller, or a SCSI CDROM
            drive attached to one of the following controllers.
                        Adaptec 1542B or 1740
                        Future Domain TMC-1660 or TMC-1680
                        Ultrastor 14F or 34F
                        Western Digital 7000faast

        HARD DISK SPACE
            LGX can share your hard disk with DOS or another
            operating system.  The beta release can be configured to
            use approximately 5MB (by running system programs directly
            from the CDROM), 100MB (source tree remains on the CDROM),
            250MB (everything is installed on the hard disk).

            You can use MFM, RLL, IDE, ESDI or SCSI hard disks.  If
            you use a SCSI hard disk, then you have to use one of the
            SCSI controllers listed above or a Seagate ST-01, ST-02,
            Future Domain TMC-88x series or other SCSI controller
            based on the Future Domain TMC-950 chip for your hard disk
            only, but you cannot use these additional cards to control
            a CDROM drive.

SUPPORTED HARDWARE

        ETHERNET CARDS
            - 3Com 3c503, 3c503/16
            - NE1000, NE2000, National Semiconductor, Cabletron
            - Western Digital WD8003, WD8013, SMC elite
            - Western Digital wd8003/wd8013
        SOUND CARDS
            - AdLib
            - SoundBlaster 1.0-2.0 (and compatibles including
              ThunderBoard and Ati Stereo F/X)
            - SoundBlaster Pro,
            - ProAudioSpectrum 16.  (ProAudioSpectrum+ is not
              supported yet.  The original ProAudioSpectrum is not
              supported nor is it likely to be supported the near
              future.)
        MULTIPORT SERIAL CARDS
            - AST Fourport
            - Accent Async 4 driver is included, but not compiled in.
              You cannot currently use an Ultrastor SCSI controller
              with the Accent Async 4 drive compiled in.

SERVICE VENDORS

        The LGX beta manual lists a small number of vendors offering
support services related to the Yggdrasil Linux/GNU/X distribution.
If you or your business would like to offer a service related to LGX,
send a description of your business and contact information to
[email-masked].  There may also be an advertising section in the
production release manuals if there is interest.  It would be nice to
have a longer list of support vendors to disseminate in the publicity
for the production release.  If you have ideas for cooperation that
you'd like explore, please get in touch.

HOW TO GET A FREE COPY

        If you are a principal maintainer or author of any software or
documentation in the distribution, or if you are making some other
major contribution that supports the development of the software on
this CD (e.g., you organize an FTP site, run a BBS, etc.), then you
can get a free copy of the beta release by sending mail to
[email-masked] with your name, your postal mailing address and a
pointer to your contribution.

HOW TO BUY A COPY

        The beta release is $60, or you can save money and
buy the beta release plus the production release when it ships for
$99.  You can buy a copy from Yggdrasil or from one of the resellers
listed below.  Yggdrasil's shipping charges and money-back guarantee
are described on the direct sales order form below.  Resellers have
their own shipping charges and return procedures.  Yggdrasil does not
take credit cards, but most of the resellers do.

RESELLER LIST

    MAIL ORDER, EUROPE:

        Wasaware Oy                       CD-ROM Mail Order
        Palosaarentie 31                  Karl-Marx-Ring 148
        SF-65200 VAASA                    8000 Munich 83
        FINLAND                           GERMANY
        phone/fax: +358 61 173365         phone: ++49 89 6378421

    MAIL ORDER, UNITED STATES:

Austin Code Works       InfoMagic, Inc.       Walnut Creek CDROM
11100 Leafwood Lane     Post Office Box 338   1547 Palos Vendes Mall, Suite 260
Austin, Texas 78750     Pennington NJ 08534   Walnut Creek, California 94596
(512) 258-0785          (609) 683-5501        (510) 674-0783
fax (512) 258-1342      fax (609) 683-1342    fax (510) 674-0821

    COMPUTER STORES (SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA):

        Quality Computers                  Positive Solutions
        2435 Channing Way                  10032 San Pablo Avenue
        Berkeley, CA 94704                 El Cerrito, CA 94530
        (510) 548-2245                     (510) 527-6908
        fax (510) 548-0442                 fax (510) 527-3823

DIRECT SALES ORDER FORM:
-------------------------------CUT HERE-------------------------------------

                              ORDER FORM
      Yggdrasil Linux/GNU/X Operating System, Beta Release CDROM

SHIP TO: ______________________________     DAYTIME PHONE: ________________

         ______________________________     EMAIL: ________________________

         ______________________________

         ______________________________

        Item                             Quantity    (US dollars)

Linux/GNU/X beta release (includes           _____    X  $60  =  $________
CDROM, 3.5" and 5.25" boot floppies
and manual)

Linux/GNU/X beta release + 1st production   _____      X  $99  =  $________
release (includes CDROM, 3.5" and 5.25"
boot floppies for both releases)

                    California residents add 8.25% sales tax     $________

      Shipping & handling (US & Canada: $5 flat fee; other       $________
      countries: $15 per shipment--i.e., $30 for the
      $99 beta + 1st production release offer).

                        Optional tax deductible contribution     $________
                             to the Free Software Foundation

                                                        Total    $________

        Enclose money order, international money order (available at the
post office in your country) or check drawn on a US or Canadian bank,
payable in US dollars, to "Yggdrasil Computing, Incorporated" and mail to:

                        Yggdrasil Computing, Incorporated
                        CDROM sales
                        PO Box 8418
                        Berkeley, CA 94707-8418

        If this order is received after the production release has
been made, you will receive only the most current production release.
This order form expires on March 22, 1993.  Call (510)526-7531 or fax
(510) 528-8508 for a new order form after that date.

All offers and prices are subject to change at any time without notice.

If you have a problem with this software, you can return it within 30
days for a full refund.  Beyond that, THERE IS NO OTHER WARRANTY FOR
ANY OF THIS SOFTWARE (not the beta distribution, and not even the
production distributions).  THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT
WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR
A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.