LBrenkus.ADL@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA (11/26/83)
(1) The Freesoft utilities are freeware, not free. They do not include source code, and the first screen of each utility is a chain-letter come-on: you can make MONEY (word flashes) by "registering" your copy ($40 fee), getting back a copy with your number, and getting others to copy your disk and register it -- $10 kickback. The philosophy is emphatically not public-domain freely available code, just a new way to add greed to freeware. They're also not that great. (2) A graphics dump does exist for printers other than IBM/Epson: The most recent issue of PC-World has the listing for "GRUMP", a graphics dump written in BASIC using a machine language subroutine. It can be customized for almost any printer-- the article gives details. (3) I agree that the IBM "kit" is cheaper. In fact, it has become easier to get PC's without disk drives--our local IBM product center was even willing to supply them that way, but we got a 10% company discount from another retailer (again, without drives). Half-height drives are only $200 each mail-order.