[Coco] OS9-L2 vs NitrOS9

Sat Sep 20 13:35:29 EDT 2008

To Bob and all,

I beg your pardon for speaking from emotion, and perception. (always a 
risky start!)  Its been a long time since I originally got my os9 hard 
drive system up and running, and when I look at the over 400 commands I 
have there compared to the 84 on the Nitros9, at first glance it looks 
stripped. Also as an example, the dir command is stripped to 2 options 
from the 7 options, and wild card usage with the dir I have. Perhaps the 
dir I have is not stock. But those are some of my first impressions. 
Again to be fair thats like comparing a 30 year old tackle box to a 
brand new one!  sorry! 

I have been  working on getting Nitros9 on a real floppy in order to 
start working with it.  But up until recently the only way has been to 
build a new/old PC.  I don't want another PC.  Fortunately thanks to You 
Bob.  I have found a way!  os9dsk!  I zmodem'd the .dsk images to my 
coco, and at first glance appeared to be going to work, but I believe 
os9dsk only works with single sided 160k images. Is this so? When I get 
time, I will try to learn the source and figure it out.  It does a dir 
fine on the double sided images, but after about 1/2 why through using 
-proc to pull the files off, garbage goes to the text screen, some times 
a lock up, :-) and thats all I get.   So for now I am using vcc to put 
the Nitros9 files on  40tss images and will transfer them over, and see 
what I can get.

Perhaps I will write my memoirs of the process. :-)

Tim Fadden

 Bob Devries wrote:
> I was under the (possibly mistaken) impression that NitrOS9 was at 
> least 90% compatible with stock Tandy OS9.
>
> Certainly, I have run all the software which I usually use without any 
> problems.
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tim Fadden" <t.fadden at cox.net>
> To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Saturday, September 20, 2008 3:51 PM
> Subject: Re: [Coco] OS9-L2 vs NitrOS9
>
>
>> I agree. Nitros9 is fine if you are a guru programmer and can create 
>> your own drivers and programs, But the OS is so stripped down there 
>> is little left of any use other than to manipulate the os.
>>
>> I personally would prefer to go a bit slower, and have everything at 
>> hand. If I wanna go fast I get on my vista64 machine.
>>
>> Now much trouble would it be for the people with the know-how and 
>> source to create the drivers/software to use the new stuff on OS9L2, 
>> the ORIGINAL coco3 os9 with tons of software available for it.
>>
>> No disrespect to those who have spent countless hours tweaking and 
>> creating Nitros9, but I think they have tweaked themselves into a 
>> corner.
>>
>> Tim
>>
>>
>> George Ramsower wrote:
>>> I'm curious about this:
>>>
>>> Nitros9 is somewhat faster than OS9 and requires a Hitachi 6309 
>>> chip. Of course, there's Nitros9-6809 but still, it's Nitros9.
>>>
>>> In recent times, some folks have introduced new hardware which is 
>>> really cool stuff but, the drivers and whatever other software 
>>> provided in the package claim to be  Nitros9 stuff.
>>>
>>> There are a few of these hardware things that interest me. Next 
>>> month, I'm getting three of those Pupo style? keyboard things to put 
>>> a PC type keyboard on a coco.  It's a Plug-N-Play thing that will 
>>> work. I'm almost out of keyboards now.  I think it's Cloud 9 that 
>>> handles or makes those. It would eliminate that darned, fat and 
>>> cumbersome ribbon cable I use to relocate the Coco keyboard.
>>>
>>> The vendors which have other products that interest me, advertise 
>>> they provide Nitros9 drivers.
>>>
>>> This is why I haven't acquired any of the latter items available to 
>>> date. I have asked the vendors if those drivers would work on my OS9 
>>> L2 system and haven't received replies.
>>>
>>>  So there are two questions in this post...
>>>
>>> 1. Will a Nitros9 driver work on a Mircroware OS9 system on a 64K 
>>> CC  or a CC3?
>>> 2. Have we abandoned OS-9?
>>>
>>>  I suppose if #1 is FALSE and  #2 is TRUE, then I'm in real trouble. 
>>> I think it would take me months to convert to Nitros9, given the 
>>> time I have available. I'm using three cocos at this time. One has a 
>>> hard drive, the CNC coco is not just a CNC coco. The ports are 
>>> versatile and I have numerous OS9 boot disks with special boot 
>>> files, startups and software(B09) dedicated to the task at hand. 
>>> Some use graphics. Converting all this stuff to Nitros9 would be a 
>>> monumental task I think. The third coco is a 64K unit and does 
>>> simple tasks for my house. I use OS9 on that one also. I have about 
>>> a dozen special boot disks for that one.  The computer with the hard 
>>> drive only has three. The CNC coco has now has fourteen boot disks. 
>>> Only two operate the milling machine. The rest do suff like  operate 
>>> my darkroom/enlarger, monitoring the weather(looking for water), 
>>> turning lights on and off... and more
>>>
>>>
>>> Heck! It seems I"m being left in the dust behind the pack while 
>>> using OS9 L2...... Dangit!
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> George
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> Coco mailing list
>>> Coco at maltedmedia.com
>>> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>>>
>>
>>
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