Re: 4.9 is now available

From: Dan Strick (dan_at_covad.net)
Date: 10/31/03

  • Next message: Kris Kennaway: "Re: about PAE questions under 4.9R" 
    Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2003 09:25:31 -0800 (PST)
To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org

    On Thu, Oct 30, 2003 at 06:58:03PM -0800, Brandon Fos*** wrote:
    > Bob Willcox wrote:
    > >Seems that they should be able to create the floppy disks and boot from
    > >them still. Not ideal, but should work.
    >
    > Floppies are an endangered species. At work we just bought a large
    > number (thousands) of new machines and not a single one came with a
    > floppy drive. Now that I think of it, neither of my home machines has a
    > floppy either. Although I do have one drive sitting on the shelf, just
    > in case.

    Given that the PC population is evolving from old machines that don't
    support the new bootstrap standard to new machines that support only
    the new bootstrap standard and given the growing tendency to configure
    new machines without floppy drives, it might be best to make the new
    bootstrap mechanism the default for FreeBSD distribution CDs.

    Over time, the set of old machines that can't boot the new CDs will fade
    away and it is precisely those older machines that are more likely to
    have the floppy drives needed for the floppy-bootstrap-workaround.

    I don't think it should be necessary for vendors to always distribute
    both flavors of CDs together. They might just stick a note in the box
    explaining the floppy-bootstrap-workaround and offering an alternative
    old-style CD via mail for those few customers who need them. Remember
    when the world was transitioning from 5.25" floppies to 3.5" floppies?

    Perhaps an alternative new-bootstrap 4.9 iso image should be built and
    distributed to the FreeBSD ftp sites and the issue should be explained
    in a companion README file so that downloaders can make an intelligent
    choice. The important thing is that new FreeBSD users should not be
    caught by surprise and have no workaround.

    Dan Strick
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  • Next message: Kris Kennaway: "Re: about PAE questions under 4.9R"