Subj : Re: non-disk stations
To   : Darren Gibbs
From : Leonard Erickson
Date : Fri Nov 10 2000 03:48 pm

 -=> Quoting Darren Gibbs to Leonard Erickson <=-

 DG>> I had to stop and think about it myself, I must admit. I haven't
 DG>> done a boot image machine in 10 years or more - hard disk space
 DG>> is so cheap {and so fast} these days it's not worth worrying
 DG>> about. Last time I did a boot image, a 20 meg hard disk drive
 DG>> cost in the order of an extra $1000 on the price of a 286, so it
 DG>> made good economic sense to go without them if you were
 DG>> outfitting an office of 500 or so PC's to Netware. :-)
 
 LE> I recently traded for an old NIC that had a boot ROM on it. I've set
 LE> it aside for when I set up an old IBM PC (or maybe a 286) to show just
 LE> how much you could do with such "underpowered" gear.

 DG> hehe. In days of yore, I ran a remote office loading boot images over
 DG> a single 2 meg link for 70 PC's. It worked fine, except if _all_ the
 DG> PC's were turned on at the same time. Then the link got a bit bogged. 

I can imagine!

Hmmm. 2 meg link? ARCnet, right?

 DG> I also ran a branch office for what was then Australia's only telco -
 DG> 500 odd PC's - on 286's with boot images, no hard disks, and a single
 DG> floppy for emergencies. 

 DG> When I look at today, where hard disks of 10 gig or more are the
 DG> "norm", and where 2 meg links just aren't fast enough anymore -
 DG> Microsoft has a LOT to answer for. 

Too true. Though even with *non* MS software, I find a 100 meg link a
bit slow when I'm digging thru my collection of graphics. :-)

ps. I just came into possesion of a CD drive (from a system upgrade)
that uses an 8-bit interface card. I may put that in the PC if I can
spare the slot. 

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