Subject: Linux-Misc Digest #845
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 94 17:13:19 EDT

Linux-Misc Digest #845, Volume #2                Thu, 29 Sep 94 17:13:19 EDT

Contents:
  Re: Linux mentioned in PC Week (Clifford Story)
  Re: Copyright and licensing - a plea to software authors ("Theodore Ts'o")
  Re: Assembler for LINUX??? (Jeff Kesselman)
  Re: QNX, Linux, or 386BSD? (Craig S. Maloney)
  Re: How to pronounce Linux?? (Jin S. Choi)
  Xfree-86 Info. (Robert Sink)
  Re: New User HOWTO proposal (Clifford Story)
  Re: How Old Is Linus? (H. Peter Anvin)
  Re: Linux won't see printer (Rene COUGNENC)
  tcpdump  [short q] ([email-masked])
  Re: Maple V for Linux (DAVID L. JOHNSON)
  Re: New Linux Distribution (Barth Andreas)
  Re: Special Sale On QNX! ([email-masked])
  Pentium problems/performance (Ljubinko Kondic)
  Is anyone using a TEXEL CD-ROM (SCSI) with Linux? (Paul Pearson)
  Re: Hmmm (William S. Kaster)
  Re: SCO WordPerfect: does it run on Linux? (Marc Fraioli)
  Re: Source copyable software is better than artificial life (Josef Dalcolmo)

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

From: Clifford Story <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Linux mentioned in PC Week
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 1994 14:25:21 GMT

>I especially like the mention of high stability. Maybe this will satisfy 
>the "it's not ready for prime time" naysayers; then again, probably not.

Yeah, probably not.  Consider, after all, Windows:  Chicago promises to
(someday) bring Windows up to where the Mac was in 1986 and Windows
still has 90% market share.  Sheep follow the shepherd...

                                                               Cliff

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

From: "Theodore Ts'o" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Copyright and licensing - a plea to software authors
Date: 29 Sep 1994 13:32:11 -0400
Reply-To: [email-masked]

   Date: Thu, 29 Sep 94 10:05 EDT
   From: [email-masked] (Russell Nelson)

         So whether or not package A can be distrbuted only under the
         terms attached to package B depends on the existence or
         non-existence of package C, where A, B, and C do not share any
         lines of codes and are not otherwise derived from one another?
      
         This is rational?

   Sure, because the copyright for B says that if you use it, you're
   making a derivation, and copyright law says that you can control the
   use of derivations.

Sorry, the definition of "dervitive work" is defined in the copyright law,
not in the GPL.  So is the definition of "fair use".

                                                - Ted

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

From: [email-masked] (Jeff Kesselman)
Subject: Re: Assembler for LINUX???
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 1994 01:12:38 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
Drew Eckhardt <[email-masked]> wrote:
>In article <[email-masked]>,
>greek <[email-masked]> wrote:
>>Does anyone know if there is any assembler available for linux?  
>
>Yes - Linux uses the GNU assembler, which is included in the 
>binutils binary distribution from ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/GCC.
>
>>Something like Macro Assembler?  
>
>Yes and no -
>
>No - Linux is unix (or at least as close as you can get without 
>    some one suiing you), so there shouldn't be a macro assembler
>    since you can have the same effect with simpler tools.

I hate to disagree, but there is ALWASY a need in machine-intensive 
applications for a small amount of assembler.  Until the compilers get as 
smart as humans (which includes doing ungly things like using the top n 
bits of a register for one purpose and the bottom n bits of it for 
another assemblers will be necessary for some applications (such as 
games).

> >    The Linux as is also intended to assemble compiler output, 
>    and not human generated code.
>
This is true, although not as nasty as it sounds.  Its quite usable for 
small routines (I just wrote a few at work.)
 
>Yes - take cpp, m4, or macro language of your choice to pre-process
>    assembler input.

Or perhapse more to the point, the GNU tool intended for thisi purpose-- 
the gasp assembler macro preprocessor.

One last comment.  Gcc supports in-line assembly ina fairly nice way.  
You might want to look at that first to see if it meets your needs...

>
>-- 

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

From: craig@enterprise (Craig S. Maloney)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.qnx,comp.os.386bsd.misc
Subject: Re: QNX, Linux, or 386BSD?
Date: 29 Sep 1994 13:54:07 GMT

On 28 Sep 1994 14:52:35 GMT Michael S. Scheidell ([email-masked]) wrote the following...
:>Po-Han Lin ([email-masked]) wrote:
:>: If one has a pc compatible with a 486, which OS is the best unix
:>: operating system?  QNX, Linux, or 386BSD?  

:>WARNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:>FLAME BAIT.   THIS IS CROSS POSTED TO comp.os.linux.misc,comp,os.qnx,
:>and comp.os.386bsd.misc

:>IF YOU WISH TO REPLY.... ERASE THE GROUPS YOU DON'T WANT TO POST TO!

I dunno, though. For "Flame-Bait", this discussion has been pretty 
civilized. Kudo's for both sides. 

"Me, I run Linux. I have no need of a multi-processor environment" -Craig

:>--
:>Michael S. Scheidell                    Florida Datamation, Inc. 
:>[email-masked]                       (407) 241-2966
:>Distributers of QNX Real Time OS Products (finger for more info)

--
Craig

=============================================================================
Craig Maloney                             | Engineering Computer Center
Supervisor                                | Wayne State University
PC/Mac Systems, College of Engineering    | 5050 Anthony Wayne Drive
  Internet: [email-masked]| Detroit, MI 48202
  Phone   : 313-577-5789                  | USA.
  Fax     : 313-577-5969                  | 
                                          |  "Eat Drum, Eat Drum, EAT DRUM!"
                                          |                      -Animal
=============================================================================

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

From: [email-masked] (Jin S. Choi)
Subject: Re: How to pronounce Linux??
Date: 29 Sep 1994 17:58:03 GMT

Actually, if you want to be downright canonical about it, you can pick
up english.au from nic.funet.fi and hear how Linus himself pronounces it.
"Hi, my name is Leenoos Torvahlds and I pronounce Leenooks as Leenooks."

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

From: [email-masked] (Robert Sink)
Subject: Xfree-86 Info.
Date: 27 Sep 1994 18:45:41 -0400

Okay, I'm fairly inept when it comes to Xfree86 or any Xwindows system 
for that fact.  I'm looking mainly for a FAQ which tells one about how
to set up .rc files, configure, and what the different 'managers' do
and where to get them, etc...  Any other info would be greatly appreciated!

--

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------
|:| Robert Sink              | "I don't want  to start  any blasphemous |:|
|:| [email-masked] |  rumors, but I think that GOD has a sick |:|
|:|--------------------------|  sense of humor and when I die  I expect |:|
|:| (c) 1994 Gurkware, Inc.  |  to find him laughing."  -- Depeche Mode |:|
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------
         *PGP 2.6 Public Key Available By Fingering This Account*
           *or via the PGP Server: [email-masked]*

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

From: Clifford Story <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: New User HOWTO proposal
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 1994 14:37:53 GMT

Moreover, a How-To written from the perspective of a rookie would be more
helpful to a rookie than one written by an expert.

                                                                Cliff

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

From: [email-masked] (H. Peter Anvin)
Subject: Re: How Old Is Linus?
Reply-To: [email-masked] (H. Peter Anvin)
Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 00:02:30 GMT

Followup to:  <[email-masked]>
By author:    [email-masked] (Terence S. Murphy)
In newsgroup: comp.os.linux.misc
>
> Someone posted a message today which said that Linus doesn't yet have his
> BS degree.  I had always thought that he was a graduate student.  Now I
> realize that it might be possible for him to be a graduate student
> without having a BS, which I suspect is the case.  I know that he started
> working on Linux in 1991, and that would put him as a freshman or younger
> then when he started, which I sort of doubt is the case.  So I'd like to
> know exactly how old he is now and where he's at in school.  I assume 
> several people here know.
> 

His exact birthdate is encoded in the kernel.  (I am not telling
where, though.)

        /hpa
-- 
INTERNET: [email-masked]             --- Allah'u'abha ---
IBM MAIL: I0050052 at IBMMAIL     HAM RADIO:   N9ITP or SM4TKN
FIDONET:  1:115/511 or 1:115/512  STORMNET:    181:294/1 or 181:294/101
Unizork:  You are in a maze of twisty little directories, all different...

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

From: [email-masked] (Rene COUGNENC)
Subject: Re: Linux won't see printer
Date: 27 Sep 1994 15:18:49 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked] (Rene COUGNENC)

Ce brave Mike Stancliff ecrit:

> When I type " ls > /dev/lp1 "  I get a message that says "no such
> device".  It also says that for lp0 and lp2, which I think it should.  I
> have an MS-DOS partition and a Linux partition.  I can print with no
> problem from DOS with the printer set as LPT1.  
 
At boot time, the kernel should print 

        "lp_init: lp1 exists, using polling driver"

If not, recompile your kernel with parallel printer support enabled.
("make config", answer "y" to the question "Parallel printer support?")

--
 linux linux linux linux -[ [email-masked] ]- linux linux linux 

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

From: [email-masked]
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
Subject: tcpdump  [short q]
Date: 29 Sep 1994 11:02:56 -0500

Hi All,

What is the Linux command to do a "tcpdump"?  I type tcpdump on
my linux box and it says command not found!  

Any idea?  Thank you!

- Kal Dabous
[email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (DAVID L. JOHNSON)
Subject: Re: Maple V for Linux
Date: 29 Sep 1994 15:08:27 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Tony Galway) writes:
>[email-masked] (Ross Niebergall) writes:
>
>>In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Steve Weibel) writes:
>>>I don't know...  When I can pick up a student version of Mathematica for
>>>Windows at the bookstore for $160, I'm tempted to keep my DOS partition.
>
>>You should note that the price that was quoted for Maple for Linux
>>was not the student version.
>
>I would imagine the higher price for maple is due to unix being a
>multi-user platform. Windows is for one person, however on a unix
>implementation of a program (unless it is otherwise restricted, and 
>I dont think maple is) then that program is available to alot of
>people.
>
No.  The licensing being discussed is a single-user license.  You would have to
talk to Waterloo about a multi-user situation.  

The previous follow-up pointed out that the price for linux is the same as for
Windows.  No, there is not (yet??) a student version -- not for any un*x as 
far as I know -- this is the first time the question would be reasonable, but
if they are pricing mapleV/linux at the same price structure as mapleV/Windows,
it seems like they are going a long ways to satisfy the needs of this community.

Yeah, it's more than a student version on any machine.  But it is, in my
opinion, the best general-purpose CAS program available.  (More religious wars 
on that coming, I'm sure).  

Please don't suggest that, simply because they don't run some high-powered 
license manager, that we should consider violating the license agreement and run 
it in multi-user environments with a single-user license.  More than this one
program is on the line with that; since if vendors believe that their software
will be pirated wholesale under linux, they won't release it, and linux will 
never become accepted in a broader community.  You don't want to have to 
deal with a license manager on your PC.

-- 

David L. Johnson                        [email-masked] or 
Department of Mathematics               [email-masked]
Lehigh University
14 E. Packer Avenue                     (610) 758-3759
Bethlehem, PA 18015-3174                (610) 828-3708

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

From: [email-masked] (Barth Andreas)
Subject: Re: New Linux Distribution
Date: 29 Sep 1994 14:03:33 GMT

In <[email-masked]> [email-masked] writes:

> Thank you for the suggestions so far. I am serioulsy considering making
> this WIT distribution. But my intention, as I said, is that this will be
> a trial (transitional?) distribution, not a final one, so upgradeability
> to a major distribution (Slackware) is a main concern. I take S. Lee's
> [...]

I would like to add two other points:

        - It might be a good idea not to use the newest versions of
          kernel and applications, but only those that are known for
          stability.

        - As I see the situation, the most important handicap for a dos/
          windows user to start using linux will be the lack of information.
          Surely you can get manpages, faqs, HOWTOs and even tutorials
          for nearly all problems on the net, but a newbie needs a careful
          introduction starting at his (assumable low) level of knoledge
          teaching him all he needs to make good use of the system he's
          using now.

Both is, as I think, important to keep frustration from the desired users.

Good luck with it.

Andy

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.misc
From: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: Special Sale On QNX!
Date: Mon, 26 Sep 1994 16:54:54 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

[email-masked] wrote:
: Why settle for slow and obselete Unix such as UnixWare, Sun Solaris,
: SCO, Linux or BSD when you can have POWER & RELIABILITY with QNX 4.21!  
: Stop playing games with these inferior o/s's and switch to QNX today.

 Dear Usenetters,

 Please do not respond to this article. It is a forgery, and a too obvious
 flame bait. It was posted from a school account at uwaterloo.ca, and not
 where it claims to have originated from. 

 
 Here are the article headers:

Xref: light-house comp.os.linux.misc:16360 comp.os.linux.misc:16361
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.misc
Path: light-house!whome!infoshare!fonorola!torn!watserv2.uwaterloo.ca!undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca!zmailer--not-for-mail
From: [email-masked] ()
Subject: Special Sale On QNX!
X-Mail-Message-Id: <[email-masked]>
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
Originator: [email-masked]
            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Sender: [email-masked] (news spool owner)
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  

Nntp-Posting-Host: inca.gate.net
X-Mail-Path:  undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca!gate.net!scheidel <[email-masked]>
              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^   

Organization: University of Waterloo
Mime-Version: 1.414
Date: Sun, 25 Sep 1994 09:34:56 GMT
Lines: 22

Why settle for slow and obselete Unix such as UnixWare, Sun Solaris,
SCO, Linux or BSD when you can have POWER & RELIABILITY with QNX 4.21!  
Stop playing games with these inferior o/s's and switch to QNX today.

QNX 4.21 represents the culmination of over a decade of research and 
experience with an installed base of over 250,000 microkernel, message-
passing QNX operating systems world-wide.  QNX combines the function-
ality and flexibility of a research-calibre OS with the robustness and
performance of a commercial OS! And, it's fast!

Florida Datamation has been a QNX distributor for 10 years! We are nice,
knowledgable and go the extra mile for the sale. And, we promise to BEAT
ANYONE'S PRICE! A complete QNX developer's package starts at just $195! 

Michael S. Scheidell                            email: [email-masked]
Florida Datamation, Inc.                    US-CAN Sales: (800) 642-5938
6405 Congress Ave Suite 140                Internl Sales: (407) 241-2377
Boca Raton, FL.  33487-2844                 Tech Support: (407) 241-2966
                                                     Fax: (407) 241-3108
Distributer of these other fine QNX products:
Tilcon Graphics, Watcom SQL, Comdale, Klondike, Equinox Megaports.
Scsi Tape/Disk and Raid Systems.

--
Cheers,
        Laszlo Herczeg
     *** Ask me about the Toronto Linux Users Group (TLUG)  ***

Cheers,
        Laszlo Herczeg
     *** Ask me about the Toronto Linux Users Group (TLUG)  ***

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

From: [email-masked] (Ljubinko Kondic)
Subject: Pentium problems/performance
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 1994 13:48:39 GMT

Since there is a lot of discussion about pentium problems/
performance with linux, I will summarize here my experience
with hope that it is going to be helpful for those of you
who plan getting a new machine.  

1. Hardware:
        -Pentium 90MHz CPU, 512 Cache, P54VL-PCI matherboard,
         16 MeG Ram,ATI 32mach 1Meg(Dram) (PCI),
         Conner 420MeG hard drive, (VL controller),(bought from
         Zenon), Viewsonic 15E monitor;  

2. Software:
        -Slackwere 2.0 Linux, 1.1.47 kernel,2.5.8 gcc (I tried
         compiling the version of gcc for pentium, the 
         performance was worse about 10-15%  (?));

3. Problems:
        -Linux didn't want to boot at the high speed (turbo on).
         It got stuck every time.  Change of settings in BIOS
         didn't help (thank you very much to whose who tried
         to help). Since also some dos software (win) didn't
         work at high speed, tech. support was willing to help.
         After about 16 hours of phone conversation, the 
         problem was localized to Flash chip (addition to 
         AMI BIOS).  Now I got a new one (new version) and it
         works fine.  Performance was about 50% down (at least
         dhrystone test) when run at low speed (turbo off). 

4. Performance:
        -I have only dhrystone test here, the results are for
         dhry11, dhry21 (kernel compiled with network support).  
         1-4: dhry11
         5-8: dhry11 under XWin
         9-13: dhry21

===========================
DHRY11

Register option selected?  NO
Dhrystone( 1.1) time for 500000 passes =     3.5
This machine benchmarks at   142857.1 dhrystones/second
VAX MIPS rating =     81.307

Register option selected?  NO
Dhrystone( 1.1) time for 500000 passes =     3.5
This machine benchmarks at   142857.1 dhrystones/second
VAX MIPS rating =     81.307

Register option selected?  NO
Dhrystone( 1.1) time for 500000 passes =     3.5
This machine benchmarks at   142857.1 dhrystones/second
VAX MIPS rating =     81.307

Register option selected?  NO
Dhrystone( 1.1) time for 500000 passes =     3.5
This machine benchmarks at   141242.9 dhrystones/second
VAX MIPS rating =     80.389

     XF86

Register option selected?  NO
Dhrystone( 1.1) time for 500000 passes =     3.6
This machine benchmarks at   140449.4 dhrystones/second
VAX MIPS rating =     79.937

Register option selected?  NO
Dhrystone( 1.1) time for 500000 passes =     3.5
This machine benchmarks at   140845.1 dhrystones/second
VAX MIPS rating =     80.162

Register option selected?  NO
Dhrystone( 1.1) time for 500000 passes =     3.5
This machine benchmarks at   140845.1 dhrystones/second
VAX MIPS rating =     80.162

Register option selected?  NO
Dhrystone( 1.1) time for 500000 passes =     3.6
This machine benchmarks at   136986.3 dhrystones/second
VAX MIPS rating =     77.966

DHRY21

Dhrystone Benchmark, Version 2.1 (Language: C)

Please give the number of runs through the benchmark: 
Execution starts, 1000000 runs through Dhrystone
Execution ends
Register option selected?  NO
Microseconds for one run through Dhrystone:     7.7
Dhrystones per Second:                        130378.1
VAX MIPS rating =     74.205

Dhrystone Benchmark, Version 2.1 (Language: C)

Please give the number of runs through the benchmark: 
Execution starts, 1000000 runs through Dhrystone
Execution ends
Register option selected?  NO
Microseconds for one run through Dhrystone:     7.7
Dhrystones per Second:                        130208.3
VAX MIPS rating =     74.108

Dhrystone Benchmark, Version 2.1 (Language: C)

Please give the number of runs through the benchmark: 
Execution starts, 1000000 runs through Dhrystone
Execution ends
Register option selected?  NO
Microseconds for one run through Dhrystone:     7.7
Dhrystones per Second:                        129199.0
VAX MIPS rating =     73.534

Dhrystone Benchmark, Version 2.1 (Language: C)

Please give the number of runs through the benchmark: 
Execution starts, 1000000 runs through Dhrystone
Execution ends
Register option selected?  NO
Microseconds for one run through Dhrystone:     7.7
Dhrystones per Second:                        130208.3
VAX MIPS rating =     74.108

By the way, it reports usually 36.08 Bogomips.  36.25 if
the weather is nice.  About 17 with turbo off.
==================================

Hope this was useful. If somebody wants some more info,
feel free.  Best by email, [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Paul Pearson)
Subject: Is anyone using a TEXEL CD-ROM (SCSI) with Linux?
Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 17:06:19

If so, could you let me know what model and what firmware revision?  I have 
a DOS  program that will scan the SCSI devices and tell you what the 
firmware revision is if you need it.  I can email it or whatever -- just let 
me know.  Thx.

--Paul Pearson
  [email-masked]
  "Please Wait... Brain booting from floppy."

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

From: [email-masked] (William S. Kaster)
Crossposted-To: alt.fan.linus-torvalds
Subject: Re: Hmmm
Date: 29 Sep 1994 09:45:48 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

> "Linus has left the building...Linus has left the building..."
> 
Nah.  Probably hasn't.  In fact he's probably building right now ;->

-wsk

--
=====
William S. Kaster        
email: [email-masked]   

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

From: [email-masked] (Marc Fraioli)
Subject: Re: SCO WordPerfect: does it run on Linux?
Date: 27 Sep 1994 23:35:10 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

In article [email-masked],  [email-masked] (Mark A. Davis) writes:
>The text version flies at an incredible speed.  The Xwindows version will
>be similar to the Sun version.  WordPerfect 5.1 was WordPerfect's first
>attempt at X software, it is rather large and slow.... but usable.

I have WordPerfect 5.0 for X/Ultrix at work.  It is ghastly.  Quite 
probably the worst written piece of software I have ever seen.

---
Marc Fraioli          | "They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist- " 
[email-masked]         |    - Last words of Union General John Sedgwick,
                      |    Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, U.S. Civil War

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

From: [email-masked] (Josef Dalcolmo)
Crossposted-To: comp.lang.tcl,gnu.misc.discuss,comp.lang.perl,comp.lang.python
Subject: Re: Source copyable software is better than artificial life
Date: 29 Sep 1994 19:23:28 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
Aaron Watters <[email-masked]> wrote:
>
...

>Nevertheless in wondering why free software is so good these days
>it occured to me that the propagation of free software is one gigantic
>artificial life evolution experiment, but the metaphor isn't perfect.
>
>Programs are thrown out into the harsh environment, and the bad ones
>die.  The good ones adapt rapidly and become very robust in short
>order.

...
>
>Free software is artificial life, but better.

And free software and it's life is threatened by lawsuits, software patents
and interface copyrights. (That includes programs like X-Windows or the free
spreadsheet you are using right now!)

Join the League for Programming Freedom !

- Josef

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

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End of Linux-Misc Digest
******************************