[tex-live] Query about 'tar' and some windows/linux scripts

[Karl Berry]

    detect the windows version or detect if "tar" is installed in the
    system? , 

Windows decisions are not up to me, but it sounds undesirable to me.

    a) Are the ".sh" scripts needed in windows (without using cgywin)?
    b) "uninstall-win32.pl" script is necessary in linux? 

In theory no, not necessary, but in practice it is too much trouble for
too little gain to redo the setup for these few old tetex scripts, as
far as I'm concerned. Maybe someday I will feel the urge to clean it up.
    
    c) What is the correct format of the NEWS file? (It's a mix between
    plain text and html apparently)

Yes, that is correct :). In the source hierarchy, consider it to be
plain text. Its purpose is to be a place for Norbert/me/whoever to
insert entries as we make newsworthy changes. When they are released to
tlnet, I update http://tug.org/texlive/tlmgr-news.html (a real html
file) with the entries. --karl