Somewhere around Fri, Jan 09, 2004 at 17:11 , the world stopped and listened as [EMAIL PROTECTED] graced us with this profound tidbit of wisdom that would fulfill the enjoyment of future generations:
> ------------------------------ > Message: 16 > Date: Fri, 09 Jan 2004 22:57:56 +0100 > From: Martin Nilsson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: Discussion on the future of floppies in 5.x and 6.x > Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed > This is getting stupid! > This discussion is just like when the i386 support was removed > from the GENERIC kernel, a lot of noise about old systems that > wouldn't be able to run (or benefit) from FreeBSD 5 anyway. There is a difference between old systems and new systems that don't have CDs. > >>And, further, some of us don't have (and don't want) CD > >>burners, and even if we had 'em, don't want to burn (no pun > >>intended ;) a CD blank just to install an OS, when we can just > >>(re-)use 2 floppies and do it across the LAN from a local FTP > >>mirror, which is as fast as a CD drive anyway. > I fail to see the difference in required labour between creating > two floppies or a CD-R/RW disc. Most new machines ship with > CD-RW drives today, the only boxes that can't boot from a CD are > early Pentium1 class and frankly why run 5.x or 6.x on those? I have several PIII's that can't boot from a CD because there is no room for a CD. These are 1RU units in a colo. A floppy, two HDs, on the back two NICs, a serial connector, and a keyboard connector. The iNTEL 1RU units don't even have graphics cards and the BIOS boot messgages are routed out the serial port which changes to true serial after POST. All are in a colo facility - and I suspect many other have the same problem. The only 1RU units I've personally seen with CD units in them are the little Sun pizza box Netras - SPARC platform - that a colo client had has front ends for their G4s [running Web Objects] and the large Sun running an Oracle back end for a data base. And those CD players were custom made - and exceptionally thin - and instead of a drawer that came out, the spindle mechanism came out that you put the CD onto and then it slid back in. Space is a big consideration in those small units. All my 2RU machine have CDs in them. I'd hate to have to think of taking the devices out of the racks and then the building to install a new OS. It's no fun with a floppy and minimal work space in the racks but I've only had to access them via floppy about twice, as I can rebuild and reinstall remotely. As long as I don't have to remake a file system I'm in good shape. But CD's just aren't always in 'industrial' type machines - as the only time they'd be used is during install. Luckily at least a couple will support PXE. Not all will be that lucky. > End of freebsd-hackers Digest, Vol 42, Issue 10 > *********************************************** Bill -- Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com _______________________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hackers To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
