Hi Roy.

 RJT> The major difference between tar and typical "modern" archivers
 RJT> that you mention are that tar doesn't depend on the destination
 RJT> device containing a filesystem.  I don't quite understand why
 RJT> that should be,  since there seem to be an abundance of
 RJT> filesystems for all sorts of other uses,  but maybe it's
 RJT> historical

it was desined to convert a filesystem into a stream of packet that could
be recorded onto a tape. the name tar is taken from  Tape ARchiver
basically a version of ar designed specially for reading/writing tape.

ar is no longer used to archive files on filesystems, except as the
tool for object code into libraries

 RJT> There was one article in the October issue of Linux Journal,  and
 RJT> at least 3-4 articles in the (free online) LinuxFocus pubication.
 RJT>  There might be more,  but I have a whole pile of Linux Gazette
 RJT> here to work through,  and have put them aside to deal with other
 RJT> stuff for the past couple of months

I know someone who mentioend wanting to give away unlicenced copies of
photoshop... I think the GIMP might be a safer product for that... but I
haven't looked at it much.

 -=> Bye <=-

---