From owner-freebsd-scsi Fri May 17 20:40:46 1996 Return-Path: owner-freebsd-scsi Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id UAA19449 for freebsd-scsi-outgoing; Fri, 17 May 1996 20:40:46 -0700 (PDT) Received: from acc0.elvisti.kiev.ua ([193.125.28.132]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with ESMTP id UAA19212; Fri, 17 May 1996 20:39:44 -0700 (PDT) Received: from office.elvisti.kiev.ua (office.elvisti.kiev.ua [193.125.28.129]) by acc0.elvisti.kiev.ua (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id GAA05421; Sat, 18 May 1996 06:36:12 +0300 (EET DST) Received: (from stesin@localhost) by office.elvisti.kiev.ua (8.6.12/8.ElVisti) id GAA12140; Sat, 18 May 1996 06:36:12 +0300 From: "Andrew V. Stesin" Message-Id: <199605180336.GAA12140@office.elvisti.kiev.ua> Subject: Re: Who wants a DPT SCSI controller driver? To: phk@critter.tfs.com (Poul-Henning Kamp) Date: Sat, 18 May 1996 06:35:51 +0300 (EET DST) Cc: salyzyn@inet.dpt.com, freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.org, freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.org, freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.org In-Reply-To: <3059.832374334@critter.tfs.com> from "Poul-Henning Kamp" at May 17, 96 11:05:34 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24alpha5] Content-Type: text Sender: owner-freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk 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.