on 6/10/02 1:04 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Well, I take it from these replies that the answer to my question about > Apple being so perverse as the cripple the SCSI controller (or, perhaps > more accurately, the SCSI CD-ROM driver) is "yes-- they were!" I am a
I wouldn't say it's "crippled". (And we *are* dealing with the driver, not the controller.) Compare to the Windoze world where every drive (or printer or...) comes with it's own driver that must be installed. But, Apple is under no compulsion to support drives other than the limited set that they use or which they know to be fully functional with the Mac. How can they anticipate every new drive that will come out? Besides, with several good third party products, why should Apple utilize precious resources elaborating their bare-bones software? Pretty much every third party drive you can buy for a Mac comes with some generic version of one of the two or three most popular driver software packages. The real question is, why aren't you just using the software provided with the CD drive? > bit naive w.r.t. Macs; I have become enamored of SCSI from NeXTs, where > every single SCSI device I have ever connected to the SCSI chain (including > zip, optical, scanner, and the above-mentioned Toshiba CD-ROM drive, as > well as numerous internal and external hard disks, some of which were > manufactured many years after the NeXT hardware and software were designed) To be honest, I find the implication that there was some sort of generic SCSI driver in NeXT that worked with ALL devices, just a bit fantastic. However, the fact that *some* Apple CD drivers can be hacked to support other drives, indicates that there's some lowest common denominator of capability that exists across nearly all CD drives. However, short-circuiting Apple's check on the drive means that you're using a hardware combo that may or may not work. Apple certainly can't be responsible for checking every possible permutation of CD drive + computer. > has just plain worked. I really did not expect Apple (you know--the > company that makes computers that are easy to use) to pull a stunt like > this. I have heard that Macs tend to be fussy about what CD-ROM drives > you can boot from, but it sounds like things are a bit more insidious than > that, and the CD-driver is written to only recognize Apple products. > What an obnoxious choice! Personally, I don't want Apple wasting their time chasing down implementation details from every OEM of every SCSI device, just so they can be 100% compatible with everything that's out there. That's why there's a third party software market. > > In any case, thanks for the pointer, and I will look for a driver that > is compliant with the SCSI protocol. I think the point is that ALL these drivers are compatible with the SCSI protocol. I've not read the protocol docs, but I suspect that it only says HOW to transmit the data, not WHAT DATA gets transmitted. Now, if there's a standard that says exactly how all SCSI devices are to operate, including the features these devices are to support and the exact messages to be sent to exercise those features, that would be interesting news. Finally, if Apple put the ultimate gee-whiz SCSI drivers into their OS, everyone would be bitching about how Apple was killing off third-party developers... - Eric. -- Eric Strobel (fyzycyst@NOSPAM^mailaps.org) ===================================================================== If aviation had grown as slowly as space travel, the first paying customer would have flown in 1943 -- in the 1,657th expendable Wright Flyer. ===================================================================== ---------- Duo/2400 List, The friendliest place on the Net! A listserv for users and fans of Mac subportables. FAQ at <http://www.themacintoshguy.com/lists/DuoListFAQ.shtml> Be sure to visit Mac2400! <http://www.sineware.com/mac2400> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Need help from a real person? Try. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ---------- Dr. Bott | 10/100 Ethernet for your 2400 is finally here! MPC-100 | <http://www.drbott.com/prod/mpc100.html> RoadTools $30 PodiumPad available at Apple retail stores, $20 Traveler CoolPad at Staples. Both in white for iBooks at <http://roadtools.com> Midwest Mac Parts ][ <http://www.midwestmac.com> After-market parts for Macs. ][ 888-356-1104 ][ MacResQ Specials: LaCie SCSI CDR From $99! PowerBook 3400/200 Only $879! Norton AntiVirus 6 Only $19! We Stock PARTS! <http://www.macresq.com>
