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From: greywolf@starwolf.com (Missing - presumed fed.)
Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1999 07:57:31 -0800
In-Reply-To: <199902222148.NAA00883@Cup.DSG.Stanford.EDU>
To: Jonathan Stone <jonathan@DSG.Stanford.EDU>,
        "Erik E. Fair" <fair@clock.org>
Subject: Re: Community Issues ** LONG **
Cc: Ken Nakata <kenn@synap.ne.jp>, thorpej@nas.nasa.gov,
        netbsd-advocacy@netbsd.org

[redirected to netbsd-advocacy per thorpej's request.]


Jonathan Stone sez:
/*
 * >This information is absolutely required by anyone who wants to run NetBSD,
 * >but has no idea what to buy. They need to know what works, what doesn't,
 * >and where they can get it.
 * 
 * I dont know who would even have that information. Even for commodity
 * (x86) hardware.  What should we document? SCSI cards, UDMA
 * motherboards/chips, 100Mbit NICs. How about serial hardware?

It's called "building on past experience".  What particular
configurations or components have caused serious problems, and why?  Be
brief (2 words or less :-).  Also include such trivialities as THE
BIOS.  I've heard that the BIOS chip can be one of the worst offenders,
for if you can't get through _that_, anything that comes AFTER booting
is moot.

 * Maybe the netbsd "build lab" could test some of this stuff?  Maybe we
 * could/should have a Web page listing the info?  As it is, the closest
 * we have is the release notes. And with the rate of change from
 * hardware vendors, those are frequently out of date -- look at the aic
 * driver mess, for example.

Somebody want to keep a weekly updated page on this?

 * >Ideas? I got some. How about starting with the obsolete equipment vendors
 * >who handle things like old Suns, HP's, 68k-Macs, etc. Particularly for the
 * >really old gear, wouldn't it be nice for them to know that a modern UNIX
 * >can run on that old stuff? They might be able to move out some of their
 * >dusty inventory...
 * 
 * If we had foolproof install CDs for them to sell with it, maybe.  How
 * easily do NetBSD distributions install on bare machines of that vintage?

We need a "foolproof install CD" _anyway_.  I don't recall EVER seeing
a nicely packaged NetBSD CD available.  It's certainly not a venture one
enters lightly.  It costs more to do than many people think (ask mycroft
about that one).

 */





				--*greywolf;
--
BSD -> Solaris:		It could be worse.
UNIX -> NT:		It's worse.