System V driver for Colorado Jumbo Tape Backup needed

[michael.t.sedwick]

In article <68177 at eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU> egert at cs.Buffalo.EDU (christophe a egert) writes:
=>>
=>>
=>>Does anyone out there know of a driver for either Xenix, ISC, or ESIX
=>>that would support the Jumbo DJ-10 Tape Backup (120M with comprssion Jumbo)
=>>
=>>If not, would anyone happen to know of where to find source for a general
=>>purpose tape backup, so that I could modify it to work with a system V
=>>setup.  Thanks.
=>>
=>>							- Chris
=>>							egert at cs.buffalo.edu
=>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
  Funney this should come up again! I was just preparing a nice litte
"letter-to-the-Editor" for PC Mag. I am just winding down from my latest bout
with Colorado Memory Systems (CMS) with this very topic.

  I have gone round and round with numerous differing persons at CMS, for over
a year on just that; backup software for Sys V UNIX! How can a company sell a
hardware product for $300.00 ($249.00 mail-order), then turn around & tell
UNIX users they REQUIRE a $200.00 piece of software to access this device?

  Now I'll admit it might be nice( for $200 it better be GREAT!!), with a menu
driven interface and all... BUT HEY, come on now THIS IS UNIX. cpio & tar
don't need a fancy menu interface! Menu's are great for somethings (interactive)
But I have otherthings to do then stand aroung idle while I back up my system!!

  It took them 6+ month to get this product out the door, from when it was
said to be released (hummm, shade of big blue!!) and then they want 2/3 to 3/4
the price of the drive, just to make it work? Something sound wrong here to me.

  I just received the second package of requested information from them
(correct info this time!). Of which it does say cpio & tar will work, but
they don't 'recommend it'. A phone call later tells me they don't currently
offer the software "unbundled", but they are working on a smaller package.
Great, BUT THEY don't know when it will be available! hum...

  Also enclosed was a list of authorized dealers of their products. Ok
talk is cheap, 8 calls later I had only ONE vendor who:

	a) would talk to me as an 'end-user'
	b) delt with their software products
	c) was not rude about the inquire
	d) actually knew CMS had a SYS V UNIX software package
	  {most had a SCO XENIX package $79.00 mail-order}

  Ok, so I did find it mail-order... $169.00. I don't remember who this
was off hand. (if you really want to know E-mail me for a reply)

  I have been waiting for this software since mid 1990, and now find
I need to steal a few weeks worth of groceries from the family to do it.
When I put together my '386 system last year I thought this was a great
deal of a drive. Especially since I couldn't afford one of those "standard"
drive (with enough capacity), which were running $700.00 to $900.00!

  Don't get me wrong here, for MS-DOS, this is a great deal. I love having the
joy of backing up to a single media. I just would really love that same option
under UNIX, at what I had thought was going to be a reasonable cost...(to an
end-user) Some how I get the feeling I may have been better off with one
of those 1/4" tape drive manufactures!


!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Michael T. Sedwick				AT&T Computer Systems
merlyn9 at ihlpe.att.com				Napperville, Il.
						(708) 979-1026