[ale] finding ubuntu mirrors

Fri May 18 09:19:35 EDT 2012

On 05/18/2012 08:27 AM, Lightner, Jeff wrote:
> Does the book talk about the fact that Digital's founders sent IBM away because they didn't want to sign the non-disclosure agreement during the build of the original IBM PC?   Bill Gates in a rare bit of honesty had actually told IBM he didn't have an OS so they should go to the Digital folks.   The Digital folks who weren't any bigger than Bill back then gave the IBM guys so much grief they went back to Bill begging for an OS.  He bought QDos (quick and dirty operating system) and sold it to IBM with non-exclusive rights - the entire MS empire was built from that and it was widely seen as a thinly veiled rip-off of CP/M at the time.
It was not Digital (DEC) but another company Digital Research. The true
story of what happened between IBM and DR has probably never been told;
IMHO IBM probably tried to bully DR into making a very bad deal for DR.
Latter, IBM still did not have an OS they cut a friendly deal with MS
for MS to produce/licensee/whatever an OS. MS then licensed QDOS as DOS
1.0 and latter bought it to produce DOS 2.0.

One question always puzzled me, why would a computer manufacturer IBM
not realize that any computer will need an OS and either write, buy, or
license one from the start? Many of the OS problems of Windows can be
traced to backwards compatibility issues with DOS. While MS catches all
the blame IMHO IBM deserves a large percentage because of their
incompetence and arrogance.

If remember correctly, IBM struggled badly in the late 80's because of
the declining mainframe and mini-computer markets. The classic
mini-computer (VAX, etc) market is basically gone now replaced by
essentially high-powered desktops running Windows, Linux, or OS-X.
>
> Imagine how much better Digital might have done if they'd had the marketing abilities of M$.   Funny thing is although I have heard much about Dec over the years this is the first place I ever worked that had them and they were decommissioned very soon after I started ~7.5 years ago.
DEC was minicomputer manufacturer whose head, Ken Olsen, stated he could
see why anyone needed a computer at home and ignored the PC market until
too late to save DEC from disappearing. The carcass was bought by
Compaq. DR was basically destroyed by the pricing of CP/M versus DOS by
IBM. Initially you bought and installed an OS and CP/M was about 4x the
price of DOS per IBM pricing. Do not think you could get a PC-compatible
version from anyone else.
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of Justin Goldberg
> Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2012 11:25 PM
> To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
> Subject: Re: [ale] finding ubuntu mirrors
>
> While reminiscing, anyone remember when gatekeeper.dec.com was mountable via NFS? I thought that was the coolest thing ever when I first learned about it. An internet filesystem! Woohoo!
>
> RIP Digital, Alpha. So much _quality_ technology. I recommend reading "the ultimate entrepreneur" for the story of DEC as told by the editors of ComputerWorld.
>
> On 5/17/12, Justin Goldberg <justgold79 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I just google +"filename.iso" "index of" site:edu, since universities
>> have the fattest pipes. It works great.
>>
>> Using this method, I found a directory that had the complete  source
>> tarball for sunos, aix, and at&t unix. I even found the source to
>> cisco ios (10 or 11) once waaaaaay back in the day. I remember it had
>> a lot of motorola m68k folders in the tree. I didn't have a cd burner
>> or a lot of storage so they were all deleted since they were of no use
>> to me at the time.
>>
>> On 5/17/12, Ron Frazier (ALE) <atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com> wrote:
>>> Ubuntu seems to be making it harder to find mirror sites,
>>> particularly for cd downloads, on their main download page. Their
>>> download robot sends me to a slow server in the uk. I found this link
>>> so I thought I'd share it.
>>>
>>> https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+cdmirrors
>>>
>>> Sincerely,
>>>
>>> Ron
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>> Sent from my Android Acer A500 tablet with bluetooth keyboard and K-9
>>> Mail.
>>> Please excuse my potential brevity.
>>>
>>> (To whom it may concern. My email address has changed. Replying to
>>> former messages prior to 03/31/12 with my personal address will go to
>>> the wrong address. Please send all personal correspondence to the new
>>> address.)
>>>
>>> (PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want
>>> to call on the phone. I get about 300 emails per day from alternate
>>> energy mailing lists and such. I don't always see new email messages
>>> very
>>> quickly.)
>>>
>>> Ron Frazier
>>> 770-205-9422 (O) Leave a message.
>>> linuxdude AT techstarship.com
>>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Justin Goldberg
>>
>> *justgold79 at gmail.com*
>> (504) 208-1158
>> http://gplus.to/goldberg
>> http://twitter.com/justingoldberg
>>
>
> --
>
> Justin Goldberg
>
> *justgold79 at gmail.com*
> (504) 208-1158
> http://gplus.to/goldberg
> http://twitter.com/justingoldberg
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>
>
>
>
> Athena(r), Created for the Cause(tm)
> Making a Difference in the Fight Against Breast Cancer
>
> ---------------------------------
> CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail may contain privileged or confidential information and is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s). If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution, or use of the contents of this information is prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this electronic transmission in error, please reply immediately to the sender that you have received the message in error, and delete it. Thank you.
> ----------------------------------
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>

-- 
Jay Lozier
jslozier at gmail.com