Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2003 09:25:31 -0800 (PST) From: Dan Strick <dan@covad.net> To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Cc: dan@mist.nodomain Subject: Re: 4.9 is now available Message-ID: <200310311725.h9VHPVLp001453@mist.nodomain>
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On Thu, Oct 30, 2003 at 06:58:03PM -0800, Brandon Fosdick wrote: > Bob Willcox wrote: > >Seems that they should be able to create the floppy disks and boot from > >them still. Not ideal, but should work. > > Floppies are an endangered species. At work we just bought a large > number (thousands) of new machines and not a single one came with a > floppy drive. Now that I think of it, neither of my home machines has a > floppy either. Although I do have one drive sitting on the shelf, just > in case. Given that the PC population is evolving from old machines that don't support the new bootstrap standard to new machines that support only the new bootstrap standard and given the growing tendency to configure new machines without floppy drives, it might be best to make the new bootstrap mechanism the default for FreeBSD distribution CDs. Over time, the set of old machines that can't boot the new CDs will fade away and it is precisely those older machines that are more likely to have the floppy drives needed for the floppy-bootstrap-workaround. I don't think it should be necessary for vendors to always distribute both flavors of CDs together. They might just stick a note in the box explaining the floppy-bootstrap-workaround and offering an alternative old-style CD via mail for those few customers who need them. Remember when the world was transitioning from 5.25" floppies to 3.5" floppies? Perhaps an alternative new-bootstrap 4.9 iso image should be built and distributed to the FreeBSD ftp sites and the issue should be explained in a companion README file so that downloaders can make an intelligent choice. The important thing is that new FreeBSD users should not be caught by surprise and have no workaround. Dan Strick
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