roth2@hulaw1.harvard.edu (06/20/91)
I own a NeXTstation, but, of course, no optical drive. The latest BusinessLand
Bankruptcy, er, umm "fire", sale is somewhat intriquing, though even at $1000
it doesn't seem worth it to buy an optical drive. First, the drive will
(presumably) come bare, that is without either a power supply or case. (Is it
possible, for that matter, to put an OD in a generic case and run it off a
NeXTStation as a *SCSI* device??) This will add (minimally) $300 to the price.
Second, it is my understanding that the media is outdated. Not, OD's that is,
but at least this fomatt. It seems the smart thing to do would be to waite
until the smaller faster ones are more widely available, as they should soon
work quickly enough to serve as primary storage devices (no?). Last, that next
has de facto dropped them from their product line means that (assuming NeXT
survives -- yes, I'm feeling bold today (just kidding)) in a few years time,
they probably won't be too useful as anything other than storage devices, and
possibly not even that considering what the price of a large (non 3-1/2'')
optical disk is likely to be by that the time. On the other hand, $1000 sounds
pretty cheap. What do people think?? Thanks for the opinions, and I will
summarize.
Tony Roth
NeXTMail to tony%cyrano@merk.com;...!cyrano!tony
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