From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Dec 8 09:27:16 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3CAFF106564A for ; Wed, 8 Dec 2010 09:27:16 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from mx01.qsc.de (mx01.qsc.de [213.148.129.14]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F07128FC0A for ; Wed, 8 Dec 2010 09:27:15 +0000 (UTC) Received: from r55.edvax.de (port-92-195-8-222.dynamic.qsc.de [92.195.8.222]) by mx01.qsc.de (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8C27E3D45B; Wed, 8 Dec 2010 10:27:14 +0100 (CET) Received: from r55.edvax.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by r55.edvax.de (8.14.2/8.14.2) with SMTP id oB89RDHh004490; Wed, 8 Dec 2010 10:27:13 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Date: Wed, 8 Dec 2010 10:27:13 +0100 From: Polytropon To: Bruce Cran Message-Id: <20101208102713.a446f685.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <20101208090416.2ca8da98@core.draftnet> References: <4cfe1a85.d3rNX98SaYCaW7+Q%mueller6727@bellsouth.net> <20101208015804.d3b54f21.freebsd@edvax.de> <20101208090416.2ca8da98@core.draftnet> Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 2.4.7 (GTK+ 2.12.1; i386-portbld-freebsd7.0) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Installer program for FreeBSD-9.0? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: Polytropon List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 08 Dec 2010 09:27:16 -0000 On Wed, 8 Dec 2010 09:04:16 +0000, Bruce Cran wrote: > The argument is normally that even without a CD drive everyone has USB > so should install using that instead of floppies. That's not an argument, that's a dogma. :-) Especially when you want to use AT style hardware, maybe older laptops that should work as a kind of console device (serial console using the cu program), or older PCs that should run as a router, firewall, printer server or anything else that doesn't require a PlentyCore CPU and tenmelonhundred GB of RAM, taking into mind their very low power consumption, then you usually face the situation that you do NOT have - bootable network - USB - DVD (or at least CD-ROM) In such situations, you are happy to be able to boot from floppy (or floppies, that's okay too) and then perform an installation via network (or plip). Traditionally hardware of the AT and the early ATX times do not come with USB. And if they have USB, they can't boot from it. This sounds old-fashioned, I know. The strength of FreeBSD is that you actually COULD install it under this kind of circumstances - a strength other operating systems lack, especially when they call theirselves "advanced". One could argument that it should be possible to extract the hard disk from such a kind of computer and use it in a different system that can boot NOT from floppy. But that may cause other problems (e. g. no (P)ATA connector in a SATA system, can't reach hard disk, can't open laptop, and so on). -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...