[9fans] REQ: Info on Plan 9 ISO installation images & Vita Nuova CD

[9fans] REQ: Info on Plan 9 ISO installation images & Vita Nuova CD

[MoJoJoJo]

Does Lucent have any plans on releasing Plan 9 iso images for users to
create their own installation CDs?  If so, when? If not, why not?

Is there any value added in spending $25 on the Vita Nuova CD? Or is
it just a plain installation image burned on CD, with no additional
applications, etc?

The distribution models I'm familiar with in the Linux world usually
have base installs available as iso images for free... and if you
spend any money, it is for a CD with applications and utilities which
provide an added value to the purchase.

TIA!

Re: [9fans] REQ: Info on Plan 9 ISO installation images & Vita Nuova CD

[Digby Tarvin]

> Does Lucent have any plans on releasing Plan 9 iso images for users to
> create their own installation CDs?  If so, when? If not, why not?
> 
> Is there any value added in spending $25 on the Vita Nuova CD? Or is
> it just a plain installation image burned on CD, with no additional
> applications, etc?
> 
> The distribution models I'm familiar with in the Linux world usually
> have base installs available as iso images for free... and if you
> spend any money, it is for a CD with applications and utilities which
> provide an added value to the purchase.

For what its worth, I look upon the Vita Nuova offering as a very
reasonably priced set of books on Plan9, which just happens to include
a handy CD in a box as a bonus.

If there was a Linux distribution that came with similar quality
printed set of definitive manuals I'd probably buy that too.

For now, Plan 9 seems to be the only open source system that is
available in a sufficiently attractive off the shelf bundle to make
it more attractive to buy than to just download.
The FreeBSD book that comes with the Walnut Creek CD is probably worth
the price of admission also, but definately not as good as the Plan9 set.

I still think the US$300 pre-open source edition 2 distribution was
good value, so to me the Vita Nuova set is a great bargain.
The same price as Windows 2000, and that comes with no books or
interesting software... ;)

Regards,
DigbyT
-- 
Digby R. S. Tarvin                                              digbyt@acm.org
http://www.cthulhu.dircon.co.uk

[9fans] Re: REQ: Info on Plan 9 ISO installation images & Vita Nuova CD

[MoJoJoJo]

OK, I ordered the CD and the manuals from Vita Nuova ($100)

On Mon, 18 Sep 2000 10:47:58 GMT, MoJoJoJo <MoJoJoJo@ppuff.com> wrote:

>Does Lucent have any plans on releasing Plan 9 iso images for users to
>create their own installation CDs?  If so, when? If not, why not?
>
>Is there any value added in spending $25 on the Vita Nuova CD? Or is
>it just a plain installation image burned on CD, with no additional
>applications, etc?
>
>The distribution models I'm familiar with in the Linux world usually
>have base installs available as iso images for free... and if you
>spend any money, it is for a CD with applications and utilities which
>provide an added value to the purchase.
>
>TIA!

Re: [9fans] REQ: Info on Plan 9 ISO installation images & Vita Nuova CD

[Russ Cox]

It is trivial to make an ISO9660 CD to be used 
in the installation process -- create an ISO9660
image containing the file plan9.9gz, which you
can download from the web site.

I believe the Vita Nuova CD contains, as explained on their
web site, the file plan9.9gz, an exploded version so
you can browse the tree (the install process still 
uses the archive file), a binary-only inferno distribution,
and various collected tools from the net.  Surely someone
will correct me if I'm wrong.

Russ

Re: [9fans] REQ: Info on Plan 9 ISO installation images & Vita Nuova CD

[Boyd Roberts]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Russ Cox" <rsc@plan9.bell-labs.com>
> 
> I believe the Vita Nuova CD contains, as explained on their
> web site, the file plan9.9gz, an exploded version so
> you can browse the tree (the install process still 
> uses the archive file), a binary-only inferno distribution,
> and various collected tools from the net.  Surely someone
> will correct me if I'm wrong.

sure does, just checked it out.

Re: [9fans] REQ: Info on Plan 9 ISO installation images & Vita Nuova CD

[forsyth]

>>Is there any value added in spending $25 on the Vita Nuova CD? Or is
>>it just a plain installation image burned on CD, with no additional
>>applications, etc?

It's a fair question.  You get at least the following (`at least'
because I seem invariably to overlook something important).
We didn't just download the images and copy them onto a CD.
 
Our CD contains the installation images, an updated installation
diskette image, TeX, some extra things provided by Russ Cox (eg,
Moscow ML), and perhaps uniquely to us, an Inferno distribution for
Plan 9 (386) including both binary and Limbo source for the Charon web
browser (including Javascript as broken by other web browsers) and
other applications.

As well as the packed installation images, the contents of the various
Plan 9 and Inferno packages are presented as a complete unpacked file
hierarchy, unpacked on a working Plan 9 system, with updates
installed, and the CD is accompanied by installation notes modified to
tell how to install Plan 9 from that CD, and with some extra
suggestions that we found useful when testing the installation.

The CD was built and written under Plan 9 (fixing some bugs in the CD
software in the process), using a format with extensions peculiar to
Plan 9, and it was tested by doing a full Plan 9 installation on a
several machines with different configurations and video cards to see
that, as far as we could tell, it was usable.

We ship worldwide, subject to certain exclusions
(but those haven't applied to any orders so far).

As an aside, the problems with bootable CD arise not because the installation writes
debug files to the floppy, as cheapbytes suggested, but because bug fixes and some
other changes should be made elsewhere to get it to work properly.  After some experiment,
I've fixed the bugs, I know the other changes, but I haven't made them yet.
Obviously once I've made them, cheapbytes can use them too,
because we'll send them back to the Labs.

Re: [9fans] REQ: Info on Plan 9 ISO installation images & Vita Nuova CD

[forsyth]

>>uses the archive file), a binary-only inferno distribution,
>>and various collected tools from the net.  Surely someone
>>will correct me if I'm wrong.

the only minor correction is that although we say `binary-only'
it has the source to the Limbo applications, including the web browser,
so there's something to look at and something to change.