By foolish, I mean buying new gear with outmoded interfaces or other technologies, such as the ones I listed. That equipment is more limited. I agree that sometimes it is necessary, but the buying should always be limited and considered carefully, always with an eye for alternatives that aren't so limiting. This is true for most people, and I do not envy those who think it does not apply to them.
The newer technologies have a longer life because they are earlier in their market cycle. They also typically provide more performance and often more reliability as well. Except in some cases when they are first introduced, they are often cheaper as well. I have often held off purchasing until a technology is introduced or updated so I can test it. That has paid many dividends over the past two decades. I haven't used a floppy disk drive or disk (8-inch, 5-14-inch or 3-1/2-inch) for about ten years. I do not get nostalgic for them. Thank you, Mark Snyder -----Original Message----- > It is foolish to continue to buy into obsolete technologies such as the > old serial and parallel interfaces or floppy drives. No, it's foolish to assume that everyone has the same needs as you do. I've already given you one example of when the hardware went beyond supporting software and caused a problem. Another is when a contractor needed to use our projector for a presentation. She had the presentation on a PowerBook with only a DVI video port. The projector uses the more common (and still perfectly usable) analog VGA and we didn't have a DVI-VGA adapter available. We had to rush around and get one of our own laptops ready for her to use. I still don't buy PCs with digital video ports as that technology provides no added value to us, but costs significantly more per unit compared to analog. > I have no problem with someone continuing to use a product that still > works that relies on an obsolete technology. So long as they realize > that it will need to be replaced with a newer technology and do not > continue to poor money into it. If you are using the technology and it still provides value, it's not obsolete to you. That said, I was ecstatic when we replaced an 20-year old HP 3000 mini with a SQL client/server based system. That thing was painful to use and should have been replaced many years before. > For example, if I buy a computer, I do not want to see that it still > uses parallel ATA as its drive interface. As the market for those > drives peter out, the opportunity to replace the drive decreases. A > more current interface, such as serial ATA (SATA) or serial SCSI (SAS) > can be replaced (or upgraded) further into the future. Eventually, > buying new computers with obsolete interfaces is a losing proposition. All of my new servers and PCs use SATA or SAS drives. That makes sense, as they outperform their PATA and SCSI cousins. But, having serial *and* USB/FW ports on a computer harms nothing except the sensibilities of some people. ************************************************************************ * ==> QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in <== * ==> the body of an email & send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <== * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************************************************ * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header "X-No-Archive: yes" will not be archived ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ * ==> QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in <== * ==> the body of an email & send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <== * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************************************************ * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header "X-No-Archive: yes" will not be archived ************************************************************************
