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Date:      Mon, 20 Nov 2000 02:31:52 -0800
From:      Mike Smith <msmith@freebsd.org>
To:        Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>
Cc:        stable@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Dedicated disks (was: Dangerously Dedicated) 
Message-ID:  <200011201031.eAKAVqF12141@mass.osd.bsdi.com>
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Mon, 20 Nov 2000 19:20:44 %2B1030." <20001120192044.Q58333@echunga.lemis.com> 

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> > Why do you *insist* on calling it a "Microsoft partition table"??
> 
> Hmm.  I was going to say "Because it was introduced with Microsoft
> 2.0", but I'm no longer so sure.  Reading the MS-DOS 2.11 source code,
> it seems that they didn't have a partition table at the time.  Can
> anybody remember when it was introduced?

AFAIR it was introduced with the IBM PC-DOS hard disk extensions; I
believe the format predates the PC and probably came from something
obscure like the System/34, or possibly one of the CP/M variants.

Regardless of your bigoted outlook, it happens to be a platform standard.
Whether some long-retired Microsoft employee devised it or not, it's the 
way that IAPC systems work.

> Anyway, it's needed for "modern" Microsoft offerings, and not really
> for much else.

... other than almost every other operating system that runs on IAPC
hardware, a good deal of firmware for hardware supported in these systems,
CHRP or PReP (I forget which) and, oh, the IA-64.

> So why are you getting all upset about this matter?  I thought we had
> already put it to bed.

You continue to spread misinformation.  It's necessary to correct this or 
run the risk of a great many people thinking you speak from an informed 
background (and thus being surprised when the technically correct actions 
end up being taken).

-- 
... every activity meets with opposition, everyone who acts has his
rivals and unfortunately opponents also.  But not because people want
to be opponents, rather because the tasks and relationships force
people to take different points of view.  [Dr. Fritz Todt]
           V I C T O R Y   N O T   V E N G E A N C E




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