[Fwd: NeXT's available]

Curt, I'm in for a turbo station if possible. It may be already on some or all of the stations' hard drives, Curt will have to tell us when he gets them set up. I have a CD of NextStep 3.3 Prerelease 1 (seems functionally identical to NS 3.3, YMMV but it's what I'm using on my Cube) and one of NS 3.3 Developer. I also have patch 2 on CD (for User/Dev) (patch 1 is included in patch 2) and User patch 3 as a compressed installer file. I also have an image of a floppy which can be used to kick-start a CD boot, for machines that don't do that automatically (non-turbo stations?). I can make and ship copies of the boot floppy, though my supply of the nice ED floppies is limited. I have a CD burner, but a) have not tried duplicating the CD's b) Don't much want to hear what Apple would think legally about my doing so. Since Apple gave away copies of this software in 1999, I'd expect little difficulty from them if I "restored and upgraded" hard drives to the current NS3.3 User/Dev + patches configuration that the machines want to run. (Calling all Apple lawyers, please let me know if you disagree!) The included hard drives, if they are the base 406Meg configuration, are very tight with everything loaded. If you plan to actively use the system, or to install much of the wonderful freeware on ftp.peak.org (I especially recommend the Lighthouse Apps), you will probably want a bigger drive. What I suggest is: 1) You get the station, try it out, make sure it runs and you like it. 2) You buy and ship me a hard drive (maybe 1-2 Gig? or the original 406 Meg, or an external) that fits in the machine, plus a check for the cost of shipping it back to you. 3) I initialize and build NS3.3 (Pr1) User, NS3.3 Dev, and patches 2 and 3 on your hard drive by plugging it into my Cube temporarily and building from CD's (so you get a clean install) and copy Patch 3 over from my OD and run on your hard drive (so it's tested and patched to patch 3). 4) I repack your hard drive and ship it back to you, ready to boot. 5) You replace the drive in your station with the new one, or if it's external just plug it in and boot from it. If 25 hard drives arrive in the mail the same day, I'll build them on a "time available" basis, so please don't be in too much of a hurry. Notes: 1) Anyone with a full release version of NS 3.3 might be better as a source. 2) Rob Blessin, at http://206.67.57.106, does a similar deal for a living (look on the Black Hardware page and scroll down to Storage) can do it faster, and already has the (2.1 Gig Seagate Barracuda) hard drive ready to go. He's also got OpenStep 4.2, which I don't. Comments or suggestions welcome. I'm in digest mode, so response to list mail will take until I have digested it ;-). - Mark