From: discar@nosc.mil (Joe Discar)
Newsgroups: comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy
Subject: Re: CD ROMS (was: Some more misconceptions regarding OS/2)
Date: 21 Aug 92 20:13:17 GMT
Organization: Naval Ocean Systems Center, San Diego

In article <1992Aug21.155757.4633@sjsumcs.sjsu.edu> rick@sjsumcs.sjsu.edu (Richard Warner) writes:

>CD-ROM drive prices have dropped, but only on 'old-technology' drives while
>the prices of new technology remain high.  The CD-ROM standard is still
>very fluid, and no one wants to sink $500 into a drive that will be 
>obsolete in 1-2 years.  (note also, CD-ROM drives are much more expensive
>than audio CD players; $500 vs $200 for a basic, current technology unit).
>
>The standards/features of CD-ROM drives are changing.  Two new features
>may be very important in the near future - XA compatibility and the
>ability to read CD's written in multiple passes.  Most CD-ROM drives
>on the market today do not have these capabilities, and the ones that
>do are rather expensive.

No one is shiping XA-compliant disks, nor is any vendor distributing
multiple pass CD's.  What *is* out there is (more or less) standardized.
Mind you, when we talk about "standardization" we know that the any
CD-drive is capable of reading any compact disk.  This isn't true for
tape drives... and Exabyte 8mm tape drive will not read a QIC format
tape--although both are used for the same purpose.

I guess, what you're talking about in "standardization" is the actual
data organization on the disk itself--High Sierra, for example... but
these formats are handled in the drivers loaded into the system...

>
>
>Actually, only one UNIX vendor (Sun) has been pushing this envelope.  Most
>UNIX systems are still tape bound.  And Sun told everyone about 3 years
>ago that they were moving to CD-ROM distribution, and phased it in
>slowly while selling relatively cheap CD-ROM drives to their customers.
>Not a 'surprise, surprise' ploy like MS pulled here.

Which is a valid criticism of Microsoft.  But again, the distribution of
the SDK was meant to go to Developers--to provide a pre-release look at
NT.  If a "user" can't afford $200 extra to purchase the proper tool
(in this case, a CD drive)--then the user should wait for the final
release.  Remember, these pre-release versions are to insure that Developers
who may be able to affect the success of the product, get a hand-on look
at the OS;  if these developers cannot afford a $229 drive, they probably
would not be able to affect the success of the product anyway.

>
>And you are quite wrong about UNIX and floppies.  Many of the UNIX 
>workstation vendors include diskette drives, including both Sun and
>IBM include diskette drives on their standard desktop boxes.  And a
>lot of software comes on diskettes (Mathematica, Wingz, XMath, and many
>others are either on diskettes as the sole medium or preferred medium).

And usually, these unixes (full versions, at least) cost 2-10 times more
than the SDK on CD-ROM.

>
>CD ROM will be great when the medium and format is standardized, and when
>it is relatively cheap to buy the drives and easy to install them.
>For now, it is a cost savings for the vendor (MS) but a big capital
>outlay for the customer.

The medium IS standardized.  The format can be read by any PC with the
proper drivers.  So what's the holdup?  Note:  The SDK can be read by
a Sun Workstation as well as a PC--as well as a Mac.  Whether or not the
destination computer could do something with what it reads is another thing
entirely.
Xref: sparky comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy:1990 comp.os.os2.advocacy:4389