[good] Re:Re: [TLUG] CF vs. USB (was: Linux World / Network World 2006)

[William Park]

On Fri, Oct 21, 2005 at 03:42:59PM -0400, ted leslie wrote:
> 
> I do sell my customers on the fact that they can swap the CF themselves,
> to upgrade or to fix an issue.
> This of course is a feature they may never use,
> in which case having the usb key in the box is fine.
> Have you identified a rock solid mobo that boots from USB reliably
> that you would recommend.

I can boot from most motherboard nowdays, as long as BIOS has something
like USB-* boot options.  

> I usually use INTEL cause my clients like to hear that cause i am trying to
> sway a purchase away from a cisco (or similar)
> but i respect asus and to a ever slightly lesser extent gigabyte and tyan.
> 
> This whole cheapening out on the capasitor scam that blowup (literal
> and figuratively) a while back really gets me paranoid,
> ...
> ...

It's very difficult to get that kind of reliability from commodity
hardwares.  They cut corners in parts, not just on capacitors, but also
on diodes, registers, IC, etc.  Also, they cut corners on design, like
temperature tolerance, cross-talks, grounding, etc.

Even if it's the same model, parts change from month to month, version
to version.  

Instead of trying to get 10 years lifespan from 1 device, how about
selling them 2 identical devices (ie. 1 spare)? :-)  Essentially,
solving quality problem using commodity approach.

-- 
William Park <opengeometry-FFYn/CNdgSA at public.gmane.org>, Toronto, Canada
ThinFlash: Linux thin-client on USB key (flash) drive
	   http://home.eol.ca/~parkw/thinflash.html
BashDiff: Super Bash shell
	  http://freshmeat.net/projects/bashdiff/
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