*BSD News Article 42373


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From: peter@bonkers.taronga.com (Peter da Silva)
Subject: Re: IDE bad? was Re: List of recommended hardware components
Organization: Taronga Park BBS
Message-ID: <D3t8BG.IJw@bonkers.taronga.com>
References: <3g890k$cbl@ionews.io.org> <D3MwsE.KF0@sci.kun.nl> <D3ooGs.CD4@bonkers.taronga.com> <3hf3f6$fmi@gap.cco.caltech.edu>
Date: Sat, 11 Feb 1995 00:35:40 GMT
Lines: 18

In article <3hf3f6$fmi@gap.cco.caltech.edu>,
Mihail Iotov <iotov@wag.caltech.edu> wrote:
>What is so bad about being cheap ?

Nothing. The problem is that IDE fixed the problems of the people who
wanted one drive, no tape, and no CDROM. It didn't solve any of the OTHER
problems that needed addressing, but because it was software compatible
with the WD interface it let *vendors* get that one-drive system out there
and who cares that when the people needed more disk space or a CD or tape
they had to go ahead and spend more money on more controllers that didn't
always work together very well...

The price difference between a system with IDE and a system with a cheap
IDE-performance-level SCSI drive, even when it just came out, was well
under $100. Now they put SCSI controllers in sound cards, they're so
cheap. An extra $50 loading on the initial purchase wouldn't have hurt
sales any, and would have let people buy decent multimedia systems years
earlier. Wouldn't that have helped sell faster CPUs?