[rescue] Re: Help IDing Old Drive

[Dave McGuire]

On Mar 20, 2004, at 12:40 AM, Phil Stracchino wrote:
>>   PCs aren't reliable in production; this is a well-known fact...
>
> We've had this discussion before.  Commodity consumer PCs built from
> no-name parts sourced from the lowest bidder tend not to be reliable in
> production, or in any other use.  PCs built using high-quality premium
> components from reputable manufacturers, and properly protected as you
> would a "real" machine (filtered power, clean environment, etc) can be
> reliable in production, and $40k Unix workstations can be as unreliable
> as $400 commodity PCs if someone cut corners on a component.

   Oh, of course...I don't disagree one bit.  But someone else (I don't 
remember who), said it best...when people make the "PCs are cheaper" 
argument, they list the prices they *could* pay, which are often not 
the prices they *do* pay.  They say "Why should I buy this $4,000 Sun 
when I can buy a $300 PC at BestBuy?!"  ...then they run out and buy a 
giant HP or Compaq PC for $4,000.  THOSE people can have reliable (if 
inefficient, slow, and requiring a monitor & keyboard) PCs.

   So, on the other side, some people buy the $300 commodity (commode?) 
PCs and wonder why they break.  Duh.

          -Dave

--
Dave McGuire          "PC users only know two 'solutions'...
Cape Coral, FL          reboot and upgrade."    -Jonathan Patschke