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Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!msunews!uwm.edu!uwvax!fullfeed!genesis.npr.legent.com!lust!woodward From: woodward@lust (Jeff P. Woodward) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc Subject: BSD/OS v2.0 HWE disappointments Date: 3 Mar 1995 21:55:03 GMT Organization: Lachman Technology, Inc., Naperville, IL Lines: 54 Message-ID: <3j837n$6ar@genesis.npr.legent.com> Reply-To: woodward@lachman.com NNTP-Posting-Host: lust.i88.isc.com Summary: these guys need to get a clue Keywords: clueless, lack of sensible device drivers X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] i have just received the BSD/OS v2.0 release, and -after a quick review- i've come to the conclusion that the BSDI hwe support folks, or the marketing folks who are feeding the hwe support guys information, have *got* to be smoking the bong. on the first few pages of the 2.0 release manual is a disclaimer which states that the only adaptek 32-bit controllers which are supported are EISA - bus cards ( e.g. the 1742A ). they specifically do *not* include support for *any* of the adaptek 2xxx cards!!!! similarly, they support virtually *no* VLB devices to speak of!!! now, a quick look at this month's computer shopper shows that virtually *every* motherboard advertisement that *exists* is for a VLB motherboard, and virtually *every* ad for adaptek scsi cards is for a 2xxx card. ( and we're talking about 100's of advertisements ) a quick lunchtime trip to the two biggest chicagoland vendors of computer equipment ( comp USA and elek-tec ) yielded similar results. i.e. virtually *nobody* carries the adaptek 17xx line anymore, and *most* of everything they *do* carry for 32-bit mode ( video cards, ethernet cards, I/O controllers, etc. etc. ) are VLB cards and PCI cards. EISA cards are almost museum pieces these days. this quick market analysis of what's out there took me all of one evening in my easychair at home, and one long lunch to perform. i guess the BSDI guys don't get out of the office much, or maybe they'd have noticed the same market trends!!! after a great deal of excitement and anticipation concerning the 2.0 release, my colleagues and i are *bitterly* disappointed in the results of their last effort. this is all the more disappointing because BSD/OS, from almost every other angle, is a pretty neat product. there's only one big problem. you've got to have access to a museum to find hardware that they support!!! i wish someone at BSDI would poke their head out, take a look at PC hardware market trends, and *then* go back and decide what they are and are *not* going to support in their releases. they are so ridiculously out-of-sync with the market that i think r. kolstad is going to need to take off a few heads in the bsdi product definition department in order to get things right. my $0.02. jp woodward