Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Sat, 18 May 1996 06:35:51 +0300 (EET DST)
From:      "Andrew V. Stesin" <stesin@elvisti.kiev.ua>
To:        phk@critter.tfs.com (Poul-Henning Kamp)
Cc:        salyzyn@inet.dpt.com, freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.org, freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.org, freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Re: Who wants a DPT SCSI controller driver?
Message-ID:  <199605180336.GAA12140@office.elvisti.kiev.ua>
In-Reply-To: <3059.832374334@critter.tfs.com> from "Poul-Henning Kamp" at May 17, 96 11:05:34 pm

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Hello people,

probably my opinion isn't of real sugnificance for you,
but (you may wonder!) I'm an interested party, 'cause, for example,
I'd certainly convince my management to purchase some DPT
controllers -- but if and _only_ if they would be supported by FreeBSD.
I'll explain why.

Paul is saying "why would FreeBSD want a DPT SCSI".  I think that
"why DPT would want to support FreeBSD" is a more sugnificant
issue for DPT :-)   I certainly agree with Paul's analysis, will only
add a bit.

# Market:
# 
# Probably bigger than you might think.

	And even more bigger considering the fact that BSDi raised
	their prices (I asked recently -- some $6000 or so!)
	This means that FreeBSD will probably occupy a larger
	market share, being used for Usenet news and network file
	services, WWW servers, so on.  (Suppose you need some 5-6
	unices for an ISP site.  1-2 will be commercial OSes,
	and others, less critical ones? What for?) FreeBSD as an OS is very
	solid and stable today, it isn't of worse quality than BSDi.

	Conclusions:  FreeBSD _is_ used for heavy-duty applications,
	and will be used even more.  The only minor problem is
	a narrow range of high-end hardware which is supported.

	Real life example.  Some person here wants to get a single but
	powerful and rock solid UNIX box, to be used
	as a small enterprise' level combined server.  It should
	have a huge pack of SCSI disks attached.  While there isn't
	a problem to get a nice CPU, motherboard and drives, the choice
	of SCSI host adapters isn't wide.  NCRs are great for small
	installations, but they occasionally die after some 60-70
	days of uptime (what do you want from a single-chip low-end card?).
	BusTeks are rare here and aren't famous too.  What
	remains as the only choice? True, Adaptec 3940W, though DPT should
	be much better and people knows about them.

	Those who want a cheap desktop unix are going Linux. Those
	who want a production system, fast and reliable, go FreeBSD
	and they won't purchase SCO -- they'll get a high-end hardware
	for FreeBSD instead.

# I have personally in the last 13 
# weeks (the age of my on-line mailarchive) told 14 different people "No, 
# sorry, as nice as the DPTs look, we don't support them, sorry."  and
# I'm generally know considered a HW wizard of any importance.

	I had some three or five conversations on the same topic
	during last two month ("Oh, how great FreeBSD is. Will it
	work on GDT or DPT RAIDed PCI SCSI HBA?" -- "No, sorry" --
	"What a pity...  Ok, we'll purchase two Adaptecs instead for
	our office network server.")
	And remember that's not USA, but Eastern European country.

# 	"Hey, Danny, what do you think about FOORBAR controllers ?"
# 	"Don't know, never ran one"

	Or even: "Probably it's great, but who cares -- we can't use it just
	now when we need some solution. Not supported in _our_ software
	environment, point."  Nice and powerful FOORBAR controllers
	are slowly, one by one, sold to occasional netware bigots.

# 	"Hmm what do you use then ?"
# 	"FROBOZZ.  Never had a hitch"
[...]

# A lot of people use the stuff on the FreeBSD lists as guidelines when 
# they buy PCs for other uses.

	And FreeBSD is popular not in the home desktop applications,
	should I notice, but for servers, and by organisations,
	not individuals.  It's a serious system.

# Often I hear people argument something 
# along this line: "If FreeBSD can find HW problems where Windows 3.1
# see none, and I select HW that work well with FreeBSD, is should have
# less trouble with my Windows."

	That's true btw -- FreeBSD install floppy _is_ used as
	a hardware testsuite by some of my friends, really.

	P.S. And I'd be happy to put some two or three high-end
	     SCSI controllers into PCI server boxes at work (ISP).

-- 

	With best regards -- Andrew Stesin.

	+380 (44) 2760188	+380 (44) 2713457	+380 (44) 2713560

	"You may delegate authority, but not responsibility."
					Frank's Management Rule #1.



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199605180336.GAA12140>