*BSD News Article 19498


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From: adam@veda.is (Adam David)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux,comp.os.386bsd.development
Subject: Re: More annoyance on the DMA problem
Keywords: DMA i8237 8254
Message-ID: <CBrM0F.5Fv@veda.is>
Date: 14 Aug 93 19:55:12 GMT
References: <jmonroyCBoq14.Kz0@netcom.com> <CBqAHw.Cry@news.cs.andrews.edu>
Organization: Veda Systems, Iceland
Lines: 28

gillham@isengard.cs.andrews.edu (Andrew Gillham) writes:

>Why the hell do I care if my floppy disk drive is 100% optimized
>as long as it can read the stupid disks?  I personally have ZERO
>interest in using floppies for *ANYTHING* except the bare minimum
>necessary to boot my stinkin' PC!

What about transferring to DOS floppies for exchange of files between
(unconnected) machines? It is not necessarily true that another machine
with floppies is on the same network.

>What's wrong with a SCSI tape
>drive?  These floppy attached ones are nothing but trouble!
>They may be great in the single-tasking DOS world, but seem like
>a real pain in the multi-tasking world.  Buy a stinkin' SCSI
>tape drive if you're *serious* about backing up your machine!

By the same token, why bother supporting serial ports or parallel ports
or anything that can be hung off a SCSI controller? You don't need a
floppy controller if you have a SCSI-based floppy drive or floptical,
and you don't need the serial/parallel card if you have a SCSI-based
serial/parallel multiplexer unit. For that matter, it is also possible
to get SCSI-based ethernet interfaces.

Insert smileys as necessary.

--
adam@veda.is