*BSD News Article 51731


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From: erics@io.org (Eric Siegerman)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Ultimate BSD PC Hardware Setup
Date: 27 Sep 1995 04:26:10 -0400
Organization: Internex Online, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (416 363 3783)
Lines: 30
Message-ID: <44b1r2$dn0@ionews.io.org>
References: <43df2f$id@future.internexus.net> 	<MICHAELV.95Sep17014633@MindBender.HeadCandy.com> 	<811439745.10029@kiss.demon.co.uk> 	<MICHAELV.95Sep18161642@mindbender.headcandy.com> 	<DF7vs9.1zL@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca> <MICHAELV.95Sep22231241@MindBender.HeadCandy.com>
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michaelv@MindBender.HeadCandy.com (Michael L. VanLoon) writes:
>
> I called BusLogic, told
> them what I was doing, and they immediately threw a free Technical
> Reference Manual with complete programming specs for the BusLogic
> controllers in the mail.  I was impressed by their openness and
> helpfulness.

I've had equally good experiences with BusLogic.  When I asked for
a Tech Ref for my BT-747S, I didn't even have the excuse of working
on a driver.  Just "Could you please send me one?", without offering
any explanation at all.  No questions asked; no charge.  Ditto when
I needed a firmware downgrade (NEXTSTEP needed the old firmware
version, my card had the new one).  They sent me the chips free.

> So, the question isn't "why *not* buy Adaptec?"  It finally comes down
> to "considering the other options, *why* *buy* Adaptec?"  I can't
> think of a single reason.

One comes to mind, but it has nothing to do with Unix:  compatibility
with weird devices under DOS.  We have a SCSI scanner at work whose
Windows driver was incompatible with BusLogic's ASPI driver (this
may since have been fixed; there's been no reason to look into it).
We ended up having to put an Adaptec card into the machine to talk
to the thing.
-- 
|  | /\    Eric Siegerman, Toronto, Ont.        erics@io.org
|-_|/  >   ...that foreign country, the future, whither we are all
|  |  /    willy-nilly being deported...
                   - John Brunner