Subject: REVIEW: AmiNet CD Volume 3
From: [email-masked] (Markus Illenseer)
Date: 13 Sep 1994 15:28:39 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews

PRODUCT NAME

	AmiNet CD Volume 3

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

	The AmiNet CD Volume 3 is a snapshot of the most recent and popular
files of the AmiNet (about 1/3 of the entire AmiNet), the worldwide Amiga
File network.  Is made available as "AmiNet Gold" and "AmiNet Share."

AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

	Compilation Licence

		Urban Dominik Mueller

	Manufacturer

		Stefan Ossowski Schatztruhe
		Gesellschaft f|r Software mbH
		Veronikastra_e 33
		45131 Essen
		Germany

DISTRIBUTION

	Main places to buy the CD-ROM currently are:

	USA:

		Amiga Library Services
		610 North Alma School Road , suite 18
		Chandler, Arizona 85244-3687 
		USA

		Phone/Fax: (602) 917-0917

	Germany:

		Stefan Ossowski Schatztruhe
		Gesellschaft fuer Software mbH
		Veronikastra_e 33
		45131 Essen
		Germany

		Phone: +49 201 78 87 78
		Fax:   +49 201 79 84 47

	and

		GTI Home Computer Centre
		Zimmermuehlenweg 73
		61440 Oberursel
		Germany

		Phone: +49 6171 8 59 34
		Fax:   +49 6171 83 02
		BTX:   *GTI#

	other dealers will follow.

LIST PRICE

	Suggested retail price is DM 19.80 or about $13 (US) for AmiNet
	Share.

	Suggested retail price is DM 29.80 or about $18 (US) for AmiNet Gold.

	Street prices are about the same.

SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

	HARDWARE

		A computer (an Amiga is recommended) equipped with a CD-ROM
		drive, such as the Commodore A570, A1270, CDTV, CD32 or any
		supported third party CD-ROM drive.

		512KB RAM is required.  2MB RAM is recommended, and 5-8MB
		RAM is best.

		As some of the software packages are intended to be
		installed on a hard drive if used more than once in your
		lifetime, a hard drive is recommended.

	SOFTWARE

		AmigaDOS 1.3 or higher is required.
		Works fine with AmigaDOS 2.x.
		AmigaDOS 3.x is highly recommended.

		Requires a suitable CD-ROM file system such as AsimCDFS,
		AmiCDFS, Babel CDFS, or Xetec CDFS.  The Commodore CDFS of
		AmigaDOS 3.1 is known to have some bugs, but it is suitable
		to get most of the stuff on the disc.  AmiCDFS is on the CD
		itself.

		(The 'bug' of the Commodore CDFS not affect your work under
		normal circumstances with the tested CD.  Only some very
		rare cases will be problematic.)

COPY PROTECTION

	None.

MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

	Amiga 3000 with 2 MB Chip RAM, 12 MB Fast RAM, several hard drives.
	Apple CD300 CD-ROM drive (also known as Sony CDU-8003A).
	AmiCDFS Version 1.12.

INTRODUCTION

	In a general overview, i would like to explain the why, what and
wherefrom of this CD-ROM.  This includes the important matter of pricing and
discuss the purpose of the CD.  I then will review the Installation and the
compilation of the CD.

GENERAL

	Do I have to explain the meaning of the word 'AmiNet' to you?  One
of the bigger archives in the Internet, the so-called AmiNet offers a wide
range of software packages, artistic products (music, pictures, texts), and
of course games to the honest user.

	From its inception, the AmiNet main site was mirrored (copied) by
many other ftp sites around the world.  This gave AmiNet a boost for its
success.  Requested files could be downloaded from the next server round the
corner rather than using a site across the ocean over expensive Internet
lines.  This network offers the best service, and the name 'AmiNet' was born.

	Over the years, AmiNet has collected about 2GB of files, an enormous
wealth of software packages, music files, pictures, animations, and so forth.
The current archive contains about 3GB of archived material.  Unfortunately
not everybody has access to the Internet or a mailbox in the local area
which mirrors the AmiNet.  To help those poor souls, the AmiNet was
snapshotted onto a CD-ROM.  This mass storage medium offers space for 650MB
of data.  By the definition of AmiNet, this is not enough to cover the entire
AmiNet archives.  Thus, only the important part of the archive has been
copied on CD-ROM.

	The first CD-ROM was issued by Walnut Creek, a US company selling
and manufacturing CD-ROM for computers.  They offered a nice service and
promptly shipped the command.  Only one snicker:  the CD was not cheap at
all.  The AmiNet itself earned no money with this CD.

	To change this, but also to gain money with the CD, Urban D.
Mueller decided to go with Stefan Ossowski, a German dealer, who is selling
a good range of Amiga-specific software, who was willing to try the
experiment issuing a cheap CD-ROM.  A cheap CD-ROM is easy to make; and even
better, a cheap CD-ROM would still offer a high profit margin to the dealer,
making it still worthwhile to sell the CD-ROM.  The larger the pressing, the
lower the price.

GOLD VS. SHARE

	(Please do read this topic carefully.  It contains flame war
information and is pertinent to your budget.)

	The idea of a shareware CD-ROM also was born at that time.  To
support this idea, the manufacturer agreed to issue the new AmiNet CD-ROM in
two versions.

	The AmiNet CD-ROM is issued in two versions:  AmiNet Share and
AmiNet Gold.  AmiNet Share is lower priced and intended for everybody with a
generous soul.  The word 'Share' means 'shareware.' If you like the CD and
use it on a more or less regular basis and feel that the AmiNet deserves it,
you are requested to send a small shareware fee to the AmiNet
Administration.  This could be DM 10 or about $5 (US).  AmiNet Gold is
intended for the lazy guys among the readership.  Being priced above AmiNet
Share, this CD offers direct support to AmiNet.

	One would think that the difference between the prices of the two CD
s is going to the AmiNet directly.  Unfortunately this is wrong!  Only a
small part, DM 3,50 or about $2 (US), will go to the AmiNet.  The rest is
going straight down the throat of the dealers (who might deserve this, too,
but this is another topic).

	Only conclusion left:  if you REALLY want to support AmiNet, buy the
AmiNet Share version of the CD and actually DO send the shareware fee.
There are no excuses left, since there are accounts made available for this
shareware fee all around the world.  See more at the end of this review.

	How does your shareware fee support AmiNet?  Easy answer:  it helps
to buy new hard drives, build up a (long awaited) full mirror in Europe,
make AmiNet more secure, and much more.  It is more reasonable to get more
hard drives for AmiNet rather than using CD-ROM drives, because CD drives
are slower and actually more expensive than hard drives.
 
	One small side effect:  the rest of the money - once all money has
been spent for AmiNet - is going to the private pockets of the AmiNet
Administrators.  That needs to be said. :-)

	So much for this.  Thanks for reading until here.  The above is
quite important, as it will affect your budget but also keep the current
quality of AmiNet.

AMINET VOL 3

	Let me use the abbreviation 'AM CD' from now on, rather than
using the full word 'AmiNet CD Vol 3'.

	The AM CD was mastered in the ISO 9660 Mode 2 format (hence no
crippled filenames) with Commodore extensions to make mixed cases in
filenames possible and Rockridge Extensions.  I couldn't locate any
directory level deeper than 4 or 5, so the CD is ISO compliant and will
work with almost every ISO filesystem.  The Rockridge Extensions are of no
use, but simplify the handling on other platforms than Amiga.

	During the making of a CD, due to a missing 'feature' of the
ISO-9660 filesystem (and POSIX filesystem), used on every good CD-ROM, the
typical Amiga protection flags (Script, Archive, Execute) and filenotes are
missing.  This makes it impossible to start shell scripts directly off the
CD if they make use of the "S" bit (Script).  Fortunately, there are no
tools on AM CD depending on this.

	(Technical note:  it IS possible to store the missing flags and
filenotes, as ISO-9660 and Rockridge Extension do support this.  Both the
ISO image during creation of CD and the CD filesystem used to mount the
disc, however, must also support that extension.)

	AM CD is usually mountable on PC-DOS using an ISO-2 compliant
filesystem.  The filenames on AM CD are 8+3 and unique and will work with
the PC-DOS naming scheme.

	AM CD is not ready to make available on a BBS, as the required
BBS.txt files are missing in this volume.

INSTALLATION

	There is no installation required.  The CD is a pure archive
CD with no specific setup recommended other than mounting it.

	The small 'booklet' inside the CD is no more than a simple piece of
paper.  It gives a hint how to read the texts in the DOCS drawer of the CD
in German and English.  Also, it covers the usual legal mumble about how to
care about shareware packages found on the CD.

SURPRISE

	Small surprise:  the CD also included another piece of paper!  A
rather funny one in my eyes.  Written in three languages, the paper
describes an archive that is unfortunately found on the CD.  This archive
includes another archive containing a full version of the commercial
disassembler utility 'ReSource'.  Of course this is not legal.  So the text
tells you how to handle this program, and offers you to buy a more recent
version from the manufacturer.

	As a matter of fact, this archive can already be found on the AmiNet
CD Vol 2 - I wonder why nobody found it.  This shows how fragile the entire
AmiNet is.  This archive cost a lot of money to the manufacturer of the CD -
which affects the prices of the CD, too.

	Let's hope that the honourable uploaders of software packages are
all sincere enough not to upload illegal material.  Please help AmiNet to
continue its work.

CONTENTS

	This snapshot of AmiNet was created 15 July 1994.  Most recent
files that differ from Volume 2 and the Top-100 download files can be
found assembled on the CD.

	The CD has only 3 top level directories.  The most important of them
is 'AmiNet', which is a copy of the AmiNet tree found on the ftp servers.
This makes it easy to use existent tools like ADT on platforms where the
supplied 'Find'-Tool does not work; i.e., UNIX machines.  The other drawers
contain information about the CD, some small utilities, and more index files.

USAGE

	What to do with such immense source of programs, goodies, tools,
pictures, sounds, and texts?  Indeed, the purpose of an archive CD is
limited.  It can be seen as large and useful backup media, or as useless,
hopelessly outdated trash can, or the very best and most recent library.
Your mileage may vary.

	One could just browse through the entire stuff - a man-life of
work (mythical man month :-)) - and get lost in the depth of icons,
directories and archives.

	One could search for specific stuff.  For that purpose several
methods are provided.

	The first is the executable "Find", which is found on the top
level of the CD.  This program is probably the fastest and most useful
one for finding distributions.

	Other Find-alike tools can be found in the SearchKit drawer on
the CD.  They act same but use different databases.

	Using Workbench, you can also double-click the Index file and
will find yourself back in an AmigaGuide-driven user interface.
Unfortunately the 'search' gadget that invokes the Find utility does
not work.

	If you are a CLI-user, you probably find the Index file
suitable for your purposes.  Just search inside this file to get the
path of your desired software packages.  This is also the fastest way
to find anything on the CD - if you know what to look for.

FIND UTIL

	This tool asks you for a search pattern, then searches in the
provided Index file and displays the matches in an AmigaGuide-driven
output.  On the left you will find a column with matched software
packages.  On the right is a column with small text about this package.

	A click on the left column - on gadgets representing the software
package - will launch an extract tool and will extract the package into the
defined TempDir directory (default is RAM:).  If the package is, for example,
a MOD file, the MOD will also be played by a supplied play utility.
Clicking on pictures will invoke a picture viewer.  Clicking on the right
button will display the according ".readme" file of the package.

	The used TempDir can be defined with a supplied tool, but the used
sound player and picture viewer can't be defined.  It looks like the tool,
which is acting behind this - Inspect - is not configurable although it
looks for the file 'S:AmiNet-config', which is not existent on the CD.

	This tool is just fine for browsing through the thousands of files on
the CD.  It has some bugs and several missing features that will be cleaned
up in the Vol 5 release only, as Urban told me.

CONTENTS OF THE CD

	I can't review the material on the CD - it's hopeless.  Let's just
say there's too much stuff on it. :-)

	For the friends of music and Euro demos: there are plenty of them on
this CD.  This will probably change on the next Volume, as too many of the
MODs have copyrighted material - ripped music from commercial music pieces.

LIKES AND DISLIKES

	I don't claim to be a Workbench user, as I barely use it.  I do like
the outfit of AM CD - only a few drawers with few, but useful tools.  Enough
for an archive CD.

	I like the overall general compilation, although the names of the
drawers are a bit cryptic if you aren't used to it.  This is an artifact of
the FTP sites, where a long name is not desired, as you must type the name
yourself.

	I dislike the 'Find' tool, which is no more than a nifty kludge.  It
has some bugs (try searching for 'a' - you will only get the first 600
matches) and missing features (only one search pattern, not even AmigaDOS
RegExp compliant, per search; not configurable for viewer and player).

	I dislike the fact, that - using Workbench - the drawers have no
order, they pop up at same places, and you quickly get lost in drawers.
There are tools available to handle this automatically (snapshot).

	I definitely like the price of the CD.  This is a new standard for
CD-ROM.  It needs to be supported by everyone!  Help AmiNet and pay the
shareware fee.

COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

	AM CD is first of all to be compared with older versions of the
series.  This most recent volume is, compared with the others, of a better
quality and arrangement.  Of course - most important point - the AM CD is
cheaper than the older versions.  Last point:  the older versions have been
mastered with the Rockridge Extension, which has been dropped in this
release - and is not required any more.

	Compared with other pure archive CD's like GigaPD CD and Almathera
Euroscene CD (snapshot from Funet ftp Archive), this CD is remarkable cheap
and has a far better known name.  I cannot speak about the quality of the
others, as I've seen only an old version of the GigaPD CD and have not
seen the Funet CD yet.

	Looking outside the Amiga scene, the Simtel CD comes to my mind,
which is designed for PC-DOS users and is far more chaotic (almost not
sorted at all) and more expensive, too.

CONCLUSIONS

	The AM CD is a must for every Amiga user.  Either for personal use,
for shared use with friends, to be made available on BBS or via FTP - this
archive is what you need.  It is also a nice family album of the worldwide
Amiga community.

	This is a reliable product which is quite usable.  I rate it 4.5 out
of 5 stars.  The last half star can be obtained by rewriting or enhancing
the supplied Find tool and by (re)arranging the positions of the drawers.
(The Find tool will be rewritten for Volume 5, to be attended March '95 -
CeBIT time - as Urban told me.)

	Last remark:  Volume 4 will be made available at WoC'94 in
Cologne/Germany at the manufacturers stand.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

	This review represents my honest opinion:  your mileage may vary, so
tell me about it!  If you reprint this article anywhere, the author would
like to obtain a copy of the used media/magazine.

	Copyright 1994 Markus Illenseer.  All rights reserved.

	You can contact the author at:

		Markus Illenseer
		Kurt Schumacherstr.  16
		33613 Bielefeld
		GERMANY
		Voice:  ++49 (0)521 103995

		[email-masked]

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