Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!lethe!yunexus!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!sdd.hp.com!news.cs.indiana.edu!msi.umn.edu!noc.MR.NET!gacvx2.gac.edu!gacvx2.gac.edu!scott From: scott@erick.gac.edu (Scott Hess) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: $19 Floppy from NeXTConnection? Message-ID: Date: 3 Mar 91 20:23:27 GMT References: <4bnoZl600io1A9JkZh@andrew.cmu.edu> <19 91Mar2.191552.7363@macc.wisc.edu> <1991Mar2.215431.25492@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> Organization: Gustavus Adolphus College Lines: 53 Nntp-Posting-Host: erick.gac.edu In-reply-to: streib@silver.ucs.indiana.edu's message of Sat, 2 Mar 91 21:54:31 GMTLines: 53 In article <1991Mar2.215431.25492@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> streib@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Allan Streib) writes: >In article >cnh5730@maraba.tamu.edu writes: > >>I was over at the Math Dept of my University and a professor showed me >>an ad for 1.44MB 3 1/2 floppies in lots of 25 or more for $0.75 each. > >However, as I understand the differences in the technology >of the disks you're comparing, it's apples vs. oranges. True, but in this case is double the capacity worth paying 25 TIMES more for the diskette? I'd be willing to pay double the price for double the storage, plus a little more for convenience, but this is extreme. In some cases, yes, it is. Well, not 25x the price, but I'll gladly pay $5/disk for 5-10 disks from NeXT. This would not be for backup, or whatnot, but for special purposes. For instance, you cannot create a bootable floppy on a 1.44M disk. You can, with some room to spare (not much) on a 2.88M. That is one of those cases where all the cheap 1.44M disks in the world simply are not going to help you out. But, overall, 2.88M is simply not worth it at this time. For most of my use, 1.44M is acceptable (720k is simply silly, as there's no real price gain there). Question: Does the NeXT _have_ to use the 2.88MB ED floppies, or will it format and mount 1.44MB HD and 720K DD floppies as well. (I didn't see this in the FAQ that was recently posted.) How long will it be before the PC/DOS world embraces this technology and the price of the media falls? They can use 720k or 1.44M disks just fine. The IBM PC world will more than likely be on this bandwagon in about 2 years, I think. For the most part, there's not so much loss in putting 2.88M as compared to 1.44M drives on your computer - you can still use all the earlier stuff, right? Of course, the majority of the companies (I'm talking about all of them, not just the upper crust) are still shipping with 720k drives, for no apparent reason, so this doesn't mean much. I doubt that the 2.88M disks will have much effect on the PC world for many years - but who cares? I'm more concerned with what effect they have on the NeXT world, and that can be great without affecting the PC world hardly at all. Later, -- scott hess scott@gac.edu Independent NeXT Developer GAC Undergrad "Tried anarchy, once. Found it had too many constraints . . ." "I smoke the nose Lucifer . . . Bannana, banna."