Re: [cobalt-developers] nice knowing you all!

[Dennis <dennis@xxxxxxxxx>]

At 08:53 PM 09/22/2000 -0700, you wrote:
>Dennis wrote:
>
>> considering that anyone with minor linux knowledge could build a much more
>> powerful box for half the price themselves, it seesm that the "solution" is
>> what people buy, not the box. The box is slow,
>
>Mine does fine.  Of course I've also got some 100kbps Pentium boxes out
>there, including one running NT4.0/SP4.
>
>> overpriced
>
>Mine isn't.  Yours may be.  Depends on how much value you give the
>interface.

You can build a 1U box with 2 ethernets with 650Mhz PIII processor and a
15GB disk for about $800.  A RaQ3i is ~$2300. reseller price. Webmin is at
least as good as the cobalt gui (and a lot faster), and its, yes, free. 

Thats overpriced.

So, my point is, that anyone buying this as just a box to run linux
probably isnt very technically capable, or just plain has his head in the
sand.

>I've never noticed the hardware to be buggy, which is what I think of
>when you say the "box"; especially when you say the box is overpriced. 

I dont mean the hardware, but try plugging an eepro100 into the slot in a
raq3, its fun...or a lot of other cards. I was referring to the overall
port;  they still haven't fixed the "eepro checksum errors"...and the thing
has a propensity to lose files....I've never had so many complete
directories trashed as with this box on crashes, and the clock seems to
randomize on reboot, although I've heard theres a hokey fix for that.

>True the software has lots of bugs, but it still works pretty well as an
>appliance, which after all is what it's sold for.
>

which was exactly my original point, that the fact that it runs LINUX is
not important to most of the people who buy it . They (cobalt) would be
better off with a black box, because then they wouldnt have to deal with
the constant whining of the linux community to fix the multitude of bugs
that have little to do with the applications that make the boxes attractive.

DB