Your Next PC: Legacy Free?

[Barnaby W. Füi]

http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle?doc_id=IWK20030404S0003

I'd love to have a pc with no serial/parallel/ps2/ide/floppy ports. Still doesn't change the fact that the x86 architecture itself is outdated, but it's a step.

 

[Lord Evermore]

"Legacy Free" has been discussed for years. It's not going to happen until a replacement for the floppy drive is available, which is truly plug and play and provides all the same capabilities and can work with a simple boot disk.

EFI doesn't sound all that revolutionary, just a "next step" in how to provide the functions of the BIOS as well as giving it newer features. A long-delayed next step of course. But it started in 2003. Doesn't sound like a project "steadily gathering momentum" to me.

People still have enough problems with USB to make removing PS/2, serial, parallel ports from all systems just a scream for more tech support calls.

SerialATA and PCI Express of course will be able to come into use fairly quickly now that it's starting to appear. However SATA also won't be very momentous until it's integrated into chipsets, which after that will mean being able to completely avoid parallel ATA since SATA in the chipset should be software compatible to the OS (no more needing to plug drives into the chipset controllers in order to run utilities). PCI Express may have a bumpy road for a while, considering the PCI-X competition that may happen. Certainly hope we don't end up with an either/or situation in our device choices.

Of course, OEM systems will be the place that total legacy-free begins, since they can build a system that works completely and the user won't have to worry about it.

 

[Acanthus]

with windows XP and 2k bootable from CDROM the only reason floppies are still used are bios flashing, and Asus EZflash is a step in the right direction to eliminating floppies from there, serial ports are still utilized by some UPS systems.

 

[sharkeeper]

with windows XP and 2k bootable from CDROM the only reason floppies are still used are bios flashing, and Asus EZflash is a step in the right direction to eliminating floppies from there, serial ports are still utilized by some UPS systems.

Yes and when you have to install RAID drivers (real servers use bootable hardware RAID always) you'll become the slipstream whore of installation CD's. :Q

-DAK-

 

[spanner]

Serial ports are still very much a standard for 90% of the industrial sensors out there, in other words serial ports aren't going anywhere. There needs to be a new standard of bootable device to flash a bios, floppies are way to unreliable.

 

[Pariah]

Originally posted by: Acanthus
with windows XP and 2k bootable from CDROM the only reason floppies are still used are bios flashing, and Asus EZflash is a step in the right direction to eliminating floppies from there, serial ports are still utilized by some UPS systems.

If you are installing a third party storage controller (which includes all SATA controllers) using WinXP or Win2K you have to use a floppy disc. Most LAN cards still include drivers only on a floppy disc. Without PATA, what are you going to plug your optical drives into? My UPS as you noted is serial port only. There are still too many scenarios where legacy ports are needed for them to be eliminated yet in a general purpose PC.

 

[eklass]

i would scream bloody hell as i have done before in other threads if PS2 and Parallel went away. remember, they're there and were made for a reason.let us not forget that there would be a god-awful amount of people asking which usb port to put thier mouse in, as if it actually mattered (although i don't like how windows installs drivers for each seperate usb port that a device is connected to. my cellphone [which hooks up via usb to the comp] is installed on 4 COM ports because of this)

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

There needs to be a new standard of bootable device to flash a bios, floppies are way to unreliable.

I notice that alot of people tend to forget that you can boot from cd's.

 

[GoSharks]

you can have my ps2 IBM model m keyboard when you pry it from my cold dead fingers

 

[sharkeeper]

you can have my ps2 IBM model m keyboard when you pry it from my cold dead fingers

Well if they try, you can whack 'em with it! Those keyboards could be lethal weapons on their own. Mine is heavier than a lot of DVD players and VCR's! :Q

-DAK-

 

[0roo0roo]

i think you can even boot from a usb thumb drive. u can get a 64mb one for next to nothing these days. floppies are poo. mines broken and i don't really miss it. i think my cheap ass ecs board supports booting from usb stuff. the time is soon!!

pretty much every pc now has usb.

i've already stopped using isa got some old modems lying around.

 

[bluemax]

I won't go legacy-free until all the compnents are also legacy-free.
I refuse to stop using floppies until there's a good alternative. A CD is NOT a good alternative because:

It's much larger in size (does NOT fit in a shirt pocket)
It's much more cumbersome to write/erase files on CD
Lots of other machines still depend on floppies
It's STILL the easiest way to get a 25kb document from one computer to another just across the room (if not networked.)

I would hope something like the LS-250 would have really taken off... maybe CD-R will improve over the years that we can get CD-RW discs half the physical size for dirt cheap prices that are written to and erased on the fly like a floppy/HD/zip is...

Until then, I'm-a keepin' mah floppy! :Q

 

[McCarthy]

gosharks - my man! Just bought 5 more Model M's. I'm not giving up

But now that I've seen PS/2 to USB converters for a few bucks I'm relenting. Though I don't see any reason to remove PS/2 until the rest of the ISA bus is gone, and that traces back to the floppy.

 

[MikeMike]

look at my rigs, i have the IT7Max, v1, the only thing i have is a PS2 to USB adaptor so i can use my MS natural mutlimedia keyboard. And of course a floppy, so i can transfer files easy from home to school, and vice versa.

i am almost legacy free, if the damn keyboard wasnt so comfortable or if someone would trade me a USB natural for it i would be legacy free.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: bluemax
I won't go legacy-free until all the compnents are also legacy-free.
I refuse to stop using floppies until there's a good alternative. A CD is NOT a good alternative because:

It's much larger in size (does NOT fit in a shirt pocket)
It's much more cumbersome to write/erase files on CD
Lots of other machines still depend on floppies
It's STILL the easiest way to get a 25kb document from one computer to another just across the room (if not networked.)

I would hope something like the LS-250 would have really taken off... maybe CD-R will improve over the years that we can get CD-RW discs half the physical size for dirt cheap prices that are written to and erased on the fly like a floppy/HD/zip is...

Until then, I'm-a keepin' mah floppy! :Q

usb thumb drive?


once u get over 1.44mb of stuff to trasfer across the room your floppy will give oyu a headache.

 

[Mist]

But you can get mini recordable disks, which easily fit into a shirt pocket and provide way more storage than a floppy or even a USB storage unit.

I haven't used a floppy for at least the past two years and as far as I know, the iMac hasn't suffered through lack of floppy either.

Michael.

 

[KDOG]

I don't have a floppy right now cuz my mobos BIOS can be updated from windows, works like a charm. But i do need one for flashing the BIOS on my 9500Pro... too scared to try it from a CD don't want to fry my vid card....

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: GOSHARKS
you can have my ps2 IBM model m keyboard when you pry it from my cold dead fingers

Have two myself, but seriously, if you like those, try out Keytronic's ErgoForce series.
I think the model is 2001, they're pretty similar, I went from a good ole IBM to a KT 2001, and Im very happy with it, same good size for those of us that don't have girlie small hands, and same great durability.

 

[bluemax]

Originally posted by: Mist
But you can get mini recordable disks, which easily fit into a shirt pocket and provide way more storage than a floppy or even a USB storage unit.

Very true... wish the "novelty factor" didn't drive up the price of those small CD's triple that of a regular CD-R! :|

 

[henmaster]

So we would use a USB keyboard? does that even work in DOS?

 

[BmXStuD]

Originally posted by: Mist
But you can get mini recordable disks, which easily fit into a shirt pocket and provide way more storage than a floppy or even a USB storage unit.

I haven't used a floppy for at least the past two years and as far as I know, the iMac hasn't suffered through lack of floppy either.

Michael.

only nerds put floppies into there shirt pocket and oh ya dont forgot your pocket pen projecter also; 0 hehe

 

[bluemax]

If your BIOS supports a USB keyboard, yes - it'll work fine in DOS. For SOME systems anyways... and only with SOME keyboards....

I had a Gateway mini-machine (thanks Tom!) for quite some time and it worked gread with the Silicon Graphics keyboard, even at the command prompt. I wasn't able to get other keyboards to work at DOS level though.....

Not a definate YES or NO.....

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: henmaster
So we would use a USB keyboard? does that even work in DOS?

Yup, it sure does. As long as the mobo detects it as normal

 

[dullard]

I can see tons of problems with legacy free. But I see no benefit at all. So I want my legacy parts.

If a mouse goes bad, I can dig in a box and know a serial mouse or PS/2 mouse is there free and I can go on with my day. Without those ports I need to stop my work, go shopping for a new mouse, and then come back. What a waste of time and money. It is so nice to know the boxes of old parts are still useful in an emergency. Imagine if legacy free was done instantly - you'd never be able to build a new computer using some of your old parts because they are now obsolete and you don't have ports for them.

If my USB card goes out, I can hook up a printer on parallel and still get my reports in on time.

If my power goes out, a UPS is nice to have hooked up to your serial port.

Lost your password? Guess those nice DOS based password deleting things won't work on a USB keyboard - or any of the many other useful DOS tools.

Nothing is easier and cheaper to take a file from computer to computer than the floppy. I've got dozens of blank AOL disks all free in the mail ready to transfer a Word file from home to work. Why would I want to spend several minutes and 25 cents to burn a CD for this? It isn't like you transfer more than 1MB very often.

Does legacy free mean DVI connections only for the monitor. Seems like a waste to toss my 21" monitor just so my computer won't have this port...

We can go on and on listing all the hastles and expenses legacy free will cause. But you cannot come up with anything other than maybe saving up to $1 on your next motherboard in support of legacy free.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

As far as transferring files - that's what networks are for! I can't remember the last time I had to actually put files on a disk in order to transfer them to another computer. scp/nfs/ftp/etc take care of that quite nicely.