Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 12:02:52 -0400 (EDT) From: Nathan Dorfman <nathan@senate.org> To: bdodson@beowulf.utmb.edu (M. L. Dodson) Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: SCSI Hardware (was: QIC-80 Floppy Tapes) Message-ID: <199706301602.MAA01404@limbo.senate.org> In-Reply-To: <199706301547.KAA04755@beowulf.utmb.edu> from "M. L. Dodson" at "Jun 30, 97 10:47:43 am"
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Nonetheless, I paid only $100 for this drive about two years ago and don't have the money to purchase a SCSI tape, at least not for this computer which doesn't even have a SCSI adapter. I thought that there'd be others like me and this would generate some interest; obviously I was wrong. As I plan to make my next computer all SCSI, can I change the subject and ask this: If I were to get computer A instead of computer B below, what (approximately) would be the price difference? A B SCSI 3.1GB HD EIDE 3.1GB HD SCSI CD-ROM IDE/ATAPI CD-ROM SCSI Tape Drive IDE/ATAPI Tape (do they exist?) SCSI CD-R non-SCSI equivalent of CD-R I heard that a SCSI adapter to manage so many devices at once would be around $150, plus the devices themselves will be more expensive. I would appreciate any input on this topic. > > You miss my point (although I should not have been so all encompassing with > the "any unix" phrase). There is no, zip, nada, interest in the development > team for working with these devices. There have been many pleadings for > people to work on the driver (rewrite or import from another Unix). Nobody > stepped forward. The main reason given was that these devices are all crap, > and I concur with that assessment. This is neither inherently good or bad; > it's just the way things are. > > YMMV, and you are free to disagree with this opinion. > > Bud Dodson > > PS (and others are welcome to comment on this point, as well, which I hope > will not be construed in any way as being any flavor of a flame), > > As a relatively new (I think, correct me if I am wrong.) user of FreeBSD, > you should be aware of the following "quirk" of our community (which _I_ do > _not_ find at all confining): The interest levels of the active developers > is a precious resource. Pleading for them to write in special support for > old, outdated, or funkily designed hardware is not likely to get very far. > By and large they don't view this as a very good use of their time. Most > people come to realize that they have a good point when they think about > it for awhile. We are not Linux and don't want to be. > > When we arrive at that conclusion, we just dump our old screwball hardware > and get some good stuff. (Or give it to the wife to use on her > wordprocessing Win95 box. Want my old QIC80 tape drive? You can have it > if you pay the shipping cost.) > > If you can't generate interest, then you are on your own. Which is how > most of the active developers got started in the first place, I believe. > > I sincerely wish you good luck on your floppy tape; you will need it. > > > > > > Do yourself a favor and dump this floppy tape device. It won't work worth > > > a damn on any unix. Any cheap, supported, (even PIO types) scsi controller > > > > Not true. Someone should port the Linux ftape driver to FreeBSD. It allows > > 100% access to floppy tape drives via device files. > > > > -- > M. L. Dodson bdodson@scms.utmb.edu > 409-772-2178 FAX: 409-772-1790 >
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