Re: Golden Orchard v. AUGE CD

[Bill North <north@spso.gsfc.nasa.gov>]

In article <19APR199500242439@jetson.uh.edu> Fretz, st3b1@jetson.uh.edu writes:
>     I got the Golden Orchard CD and it really has some usefull stuff on it.  
>Though it does not have the wide selection as compared to the grind.  Does
>anyone have both CDs and know if alot of duplicate programs appear on both.
>The Golden Orchard has GS System software from version 1.1 to 6.0.1 which
>is great for our user group library and plus the IIe software for IIe card and
>real computer.  The Apple one scanner SCSI software was an added plus I though
>I would not see.  Thanks Digisoft!

My first impression is that there is surprisingly little
duplication. This impression is a gut feeling, not an
indepth analysis, that does _not_ include the fonts, music,
or graphics directories. On the other hand, there is a
surprisingly large amount of duplication just on the Golden
Orchard: the entire prodos partition contents seems to
be duplicated on GO-Main or some other HFS partition.

Random additional thoughts on Golden Orchard:

1. Very pleased that most file are _not_ compressed. Makes
browsing much more pleasant.

2. Really neat that the cd is bootable into GSOS 6.0.1.

3. The partitions are:
GO.PRODOS 20 MB (19.5 MB Used) Prodos
GO-Main 71 MB (69.3MB Used) HFS
GO-Misc16Bit 80MB (77.2MB Used) HFS
GO-G.S. 128MB (127.7MB Used) HFS
GO-Disks 144MB (143.3MB Used) HFS
GO-Applications 82MB (80.3MB Used) HFS
GO-Programming 125MB (121.8MB Used) HFS
Total 650MB

4. All partitions mount on the GS, but the Mac is a problem.
As stated in the included 'read.me' paper, the Apple cd driver
only mounts one partition (GO-Main). To mount the others
require a third party driver. FWB CD Toolkit is specifically
mentioned. I have Insignia's RapidCd, and _IT Doesn't WORK_.
Bummer.

5. The choice of which GS system software versions to include
is at times curious. Why include 3.1 but not 3.2? <shrug>

6. The aforementioned duplication of the GO.PRODOS partition
"wastes" 15MB for little apparent gain.

7a. The AUGE CD is, for all intents and purposes, not organized.
Without the supplied index (which has many errors) it would be
hopeless.

7b. Golden Orchard is very nicely organized. But the lack of any
kind of index at all is rather annoying. To discover if what you
are looking for is on the CD you have to mount it and paw through
the directories. Since my CD is usually attached to my Mac (and
Appleshared to the GS) this is extremely awkward (remember my
Mac won't mount all the partitions). This is the biggest
disappointment of the CD. Yes, I've run a recursive directory
listing to a text file, but an index is more than a file list
dump.

8. Rather weak in games.

9. Rather good in programming, but still some curious things
missing. Foundation is there but I didn't see rEdit. (Maybe I
just missed it.) Jawaid Bazyar's Scheme not there.

10. Obviously each person will be attracted to what they are
interested in. I felt the 128MB used for GO-G.S. (containing
most of the graphics and sounds) could have been more profitably
filled with 'GS' stuff rather than GIFS and MODS and etc. But
you may be thrilled to see all the graphics and sounds.

Conclusion? Both the AUGE and Golden Orchard CDs are worth getting
for different reasons and contents. Both are inconvenient in their
own unique ways. I am glad to have both, but the definitive Apple
IIgs CD is yet to be created. There is still room for another.