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From: "Cousins, Kevin" <Kevin.Cousins@praxa.com.au>
To: "'perry@piermont.com'" <perry@piermont.com>, 
	"'netbsd-advocacy@netbsd.org'" <netbsd-advocacy@netbsd.org>
Subject: RE: empirical method for generation of netbsd book. 
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 1998 10:29:54 +1000
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Todd> ...In short, you simply hold a well-stocked installation party
Todd> and videotape it extensively...

Todd> However, I think it makes a lot of sense to wait until 1.4-BETA
Todd> is mostly converged before we marshal the resources to actually
Todd> do this.

Perry> This is a cool idea!

Which: the 'install' party, or waiting for 1.4-BETA?

Sure, I agree that the idea of an 'install' party is a good one.
Shouldn't we remember, though, that there are platforms other than
i386 to include [especially ones which install via a miniroot]?  Also,

Waiting for 1.4-BETA?  I suspect that the job of accumulating material
for a book should begin ASAP---text can be edited to reflect any
changes that 1.4-BETA brings.



Perry> I wonder if there is a good way to get it done. Anyone want to
Perry> volunteer to coordinate this?

I'd love to, yet, how much do you reckon /I/ could coordinate from
Sydney, Australia? :)

Ha!  When the idea of a NetBSD book was first raised, I went home from
work thinking: "Hey!  /I/ could do that"!  That was almost a week ago,
and I /still/ haven't put any text together (but I /have/ begun some
'research'---I bought "The Design, etc., of 4.4BSD" and am now about a
third of the way into it).

While at the book shop, I noted: there were five or six shelves, each
4' or so wide, crammed with books which had 'Linux' in the title;
there was one copy of a book called "Complete FreeBSD", which came
with a CD (Walnut Creek?)---this tome was the size of a phone book;
the first chapter was basically just advocacy and makes mention of
NetBSD; there were a few chapters on installation and housekeeping/
admin tasks, and the entire latter half of the book consisted of
manual pages!  There were also a couple of shelves which held CDs for
two releases of FreeBSD (2.2.5/6?), several Linux distributions, and a
smattering of offerings from the FSF and Dr Dobbs.

I politely asked the proprietor about NetBSD and what it would take to
get things like CDs and books onto his shelves.  He claimed he'd never
heard of NetBSD, and that if he had a few more enquiries, he'd
certainly consider stocking some stuff.

So!  Can anyone forward any pointers to how I might be able to find
out more about getting NetBSD-1.3.2 CDs into Australia?  Also, how
i386-specific are they?

For now, I think I might just start making copious notes.

--Kevin.