rbp@investor.pgh.pa.us (Bob Peirce #305) (01/09/91)
A week or so ago someone said Improv only comes on floppies. Then, a couple of days ago, someone said something that suggested the 2.0 upgrade also comes on floppies instead of on an OD. Therefore, who has suggestions for an economical floppy drive so all us OD users can load the present and future new software? Economical, to me, means a couple of hundred bucks, complete. Anything like that out there? -- Bob Peirce, Pittsburgh, PA 412-471-5320 ...!uunet!pitt!investor!rbp rbp@investor.pgh.pa.us
smithw@hamblin.math.byu.edu (Dr. William V. Smith) (01/09/91)
Bob Peirce (rbp@investor.pgh.pa.us) >A week or so ago someone said Improv only comes on floppies. Then, a >couple of days ago, someone said something that suggested the 2.0 >upgrade also comes on floppies instead of on an OD. Therefore, who has >suggestions for an economical floppy drive so all us OD users can load >the present and future new software? Economical, to me, means a couple >of hundred bucks, complete. Anything like that out there? Improve will indeed come on floppies. But the *upgrade* comes on optical disk, unless you have an optical only machine, in which case the company recommends that you buy (at least) the 105MB drive with 2.0 installed. There is no floppy distribution of the *upgrade* per se. You can however purchase the 2.0 software and and 2.0 software/ extended on floppy disks. This has nothing particularly to do with upgrading your 030 cube, unless you would like to buy a floppy drive right away. Personally, I will not think about buying a floppy drive until June or so when prices are predicted to drop and it becomes important to transfer files that way. If there is some other reason that you want to use the floppy (for non-net stuff using Macs or PCs say) then that is certainly grounds for considering the purchase of an external floppy drive. But you will find it difficult to get a supported drive for less than $400 *educational* - correct me if I'm wrong here please. -Bill -- __________________Prof. William V. Smith____________________ EMail: smithw@hamblin.math.byu.edu or uunet!hamblin.math.byu.edu!smithw SMail: Math Dept. -- 314 TMCB; BYU; Provo, UT 84602 (USA) NeXTmail: smithw@mathnx.math.byu.edu Phone: +1 801 378 2061 FAX: +1 801 378 2800
melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger) (01/10/91)
How long before 20MB floppy drives hit the market? Someone mentioned that the first drives will be introduced in April. It seems like a waste to buy an external 2.88MB drive now, and a 20MB floppy drive later. I think(IMHO) that 20MB drives will be purchased by many computer users(i.e. NeXT, DOS, Mac , and Amiga owners), and that prices of these drives will turn out to be quite reasonable considering the market size for them will be in the tens of millions. Since, NeXT users are definitely going to be one of the first users, it would be good to know more about them now. Otherwise, many users are just going to buy the 1.44MB or 2.88MB drives now and they won't purchase 20MB drives later. I want the least common denominator to be 20MB floppies(and they might be within a year), and I don't want to see people six months from now who feel like they got burned because they bought a 2.88MB floppy drive. A non-networked NeXT Station with a 105MB hard drive and a 20MB floppy drive should be quite pleasant. -Mike
tgingric@magnus.ircc.ohio-state.edu (Tyler S Gingrich) (01/10/91)
In article <1991Jan9.122039.10078@investor.pgh.pa.us> rbp@investor.pgh.pa.us (Bob Peirce #305) writes: >A week or so ago someone said Improv only comes on floppies. Then, a >couple of days ago, someone said something that suggested the 2.0 >upgrade also comes on floppies instead of on an OD. Therefore, who has >suggestions for an economical floppy drive so all us OD users can load >the present and future new software? Economical, to me, means a couple >of hundred bucks, complete. Anything like that out there? > Actually, the 2.0 upgrade is available on floppies or on optical disk. The floppy release actually ends up costing twice as much since you pay about $175 for the Release 2.0 disks PLUS $175 for the 2.0 Extended disks -- the optical disks has ALL the software on it for only $185. Improv will be released on 1.44Mb floppy diskettes -- and, unfortunately, there is no CHEAP floppy drive solution on the market...... Pacific Micro Devices has an external drive that will read 720, 1.44, & mac disks (but not 2.88s). Tyler
nerd@percy.rain.com (Michael Galassi) (01/11/91)
In article <1991Jan10.130434.19994@magnus.ircc.ohio-state.edu> tgingric@magnus.ircc.ohio-state.edu (Tyler S Gingrich) writes: >In article <1991Jan9.122039.10078@investor.pgh.pa.us> rbp@investor.pgh.pa.us (Bob Peirce #305) writes: >> ... Therefore, who has >>suggestions for an economical floppy drive so all us OD users can load >>the present and future new software? Economical, to me, means a couple >>of hundred bucks, complete. Anything like that out there? >Improv will be released on 1.44Mb floppy diskettes -- and, unfortunately, >there is no CHEAP floppy drive solution on the market...... >Pacific Micro Devices has an external drive that will read 720, 1.44, & mac >disks (but not 2.88s). I have not yet tried this on my NeXT but under SCO Xenix '386 many tools like tar, cpio, and the dos floppy maninulation programs are happy working with a file created by reading the floppy on another machine with dd. It works something like this: on machine at work with floppy drive: dd if=/dev/fd0 of=~uucp/disk.out uucp ~uucp/disk.out [home machine without floppy] at home: tar tvf ~uucp/disk.out produces listing as if I had done this directly from the floppy. I would guess this should work if the instalation programs used by 2.0 are flexible enough to recognize diferent sources. I could then use my Xenix 1.44 meg floppy at work to create all my files and uucp them to my NeXT at home. In NeXT's flier "Upgrade Options for Current Users" they talk about the "PLI SuperFloppy 2.8" as a NeXT-compatible floppy disk drive. It is not cheap (~$500) but in the long run is probably worth it. For your reference, PLI can be reached at (800) 288-8754 or (415) 657-2211. They have not returned 2 of my calls (I even left an 800 #) but that's life. PLI does not include a SCSI cable so you will have another $50 added to all that. Ingo's solution (roll your own) seems like a good one. The one thing that was not obvious is if this was on 2.0 or 1.0a. Ingo, I'd love to hear more details. -- Michael Galassi | nerd@percy.rain.com MS-DOS: The ultimate PC virus. | ...!tektronix!percy!nerd