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The xtrs package is in the "contrib" distribution of Debian because it requires
a ROM image from one of the original TRS-80 Model I, III, 4, or 4P computers to
operate. Because of licensing restrictions on the ROM images, they may not be
distributed with the Debian package.
There is a freely-licensed boot ROM for Model 4P emulation provided with xtrs;
however, this boot image can only be used to boot an operating system designed
for the Model 4 (it is not sophisticated enough to load the BASIC interpreter
ROM for Model III compatiblity mode, provided on Model 4P TRSDOS disks as a file
called MODELA/III). There are no known free operating systems for the TRS-80
Model 4P, and there may never be. Since most users will likely be using this
emulator to run proprietary legacy applications for the TRS-80 computers, I do
not regard this exception as sufficient to recategorize xtrs for inclusion in
main.
If someone ports a free OS to the TRS-80, however, that could change. This
isn't an implausible prospect; see the Contiki Project at
http://www.sics.se/contiki/
for an example of a freely-licensed 8-bit OS that has been ported to platforms
contemporary with the TRS-80.
See /usr/doc/xtrs/README.Debian for more information on using xtrs in Debian.
-- Branden Robinson
$Id: README.contrib-only 110 2008-02-07 04:09:22Z branden $
vim:set ai et ts=4 sw=4 tw=80:
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