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Exchanging software like OS's, Applications and Diagnostics

machine

machine

Experienced Member
Joined
Apr 16, 2005
Messages
56
I wonder if it would be good to set up an exchange for OS's and Apps for our vintage machines.

Some of us will purchase machines which have no OS and of course a few Applications would be good to have too.

I suppose there are legalities in giving away copies of software. Copyright does last a long time.

Exchanges would be on floppy of course.

Also, diagnostics for our machines would be nice to get hold of as we'll need to fix our computers sometimes.

I do recall software to write in any format to a 5.25" or 3.5" disk so that copies can be made of almost anything. I think I still have a copy of this somewhere, but can't remember it's name.

Well, what do you think of an exchange for software ?
 
There are some abandonware and other download sites floating around out there already. Like you said, the big thing is making sure that it's legal. As far as exchanging, I think an FTP site would be much easier than sending floppies around. The only advantage to floppies that I see is if you don't have the set up to transfer the files to the proper media (floppy, tape. etc.) at home.
 
I have access to a couple of very extensive PD libraries, one for MSDOS disks, and another for Apple ][ stuff. There are at least 5000 disks in all. I'd like to make them available, if possible, but I really don't know where to begin. Any clues? Anyone...?

--T
 
i would love something like this!

i also like the idea of floppies mailed out, as it eliminates lots of problems, as mentioned in the post previous.

i am all for helping out in any way

chris
 
I do this routinely for MS DOS machines. Most OS and diagnostic software is not protected, so it makes it easy to transfer electronically.

A disk imager like ditu or 'dd' under Linux is ideal because it just dumps the raw sectors without adding meta data or other cruft. A zip with the individual files is also handy for when you want to see a file without restoring an entire diskette. And lastly, I always package a scanned image of the diskette label so there is not question about version numbers, date, etc.


Mike
 
Correction to above post:

I was slightly mislead, there are far less than 5000 disks (so far), and they are all Apple ][ stuff, mebbe about 600 in total. The good news is that someone has stepped up and volunteered to archive them for posterity. With any luck, a disk-copying service may be included as well. I'll keep posted as to progress of this project.

--T
 
Although we could easily send files to each other, the file still has to be copied on to a floppy disk in a format for an old/odd machine like a C'dore PET, Apple ][ or CP/M machine.

If your old machine is bootable then a file transfer from your PC to the vintage machine could be done through the serial port and write the file to floppy.

Floppy disk exchanges would be cumbersome, although not expensive.

I know there is an app to copy and write files in many disk formats (I have a copy on an old hard disk somewhere, but can't remember the name of the app), it also does disk formats in many formats.

It's not a technically difficult problem, just one of solving it in the easiest way.

OS's are the worst problem, they require the disk to be written in areas not normally written to.
 
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