Romtec Trios Hard Drive Selector for multi-boot ok, Mr. freebsd?

Hi,

I read your reasons why people shouldn't multboot OSs on a single PC. Your reasons are certianly valid.

However, I've read some reviews on Romtec's TRIOS hard drive selector. I'm wondering if you would agree that most of the reasons you gave would not apply if one were using this device to multiboot.

With the TRIOS, one boots from one of up to three separate hard drives. Lets say a person has freebsd on one drive, Windows 2000 on another and Linux on a third drive. After booting up, one cannot access the other drive(s) hooked up to the TRIOS until one reboots. I would think for learning, this would give you a three in one machine without worry you might clobber one operating system while booted up in another.

The review at www.hothardware.com/hh_files/CCAM/trios.htm seemed informative.


Your thoughts on this are appreciated. Again, I'm thinking a learning box here, not a dedicated server running 24x7.

Thank you very much,

Louis

>> most of the reasons you gave would not apply if one were using this device to multiboot

One reason - Cost. When you must multiboot, you are obviously on a tight budget and can't afford to build/purchase more hardware. When building another box is affordable, there is no reason to throw your cash and invest on something that's designed for multiboot.

I don't question TRIOS addresses some issues on multiboot quite well. But their innovative technology doesn't follow the tends of today's technology and economy. To put it simple, hardware is no longer unaffordable. More multibooters are moving away and building multiple boxes.

Like what I always said, there is no free lunch in the world. If you wanna run servers or try something, you need to pay for it. Like subscribing to SDSL or a fast internet connection with static IPs. If you choose to get PPPoE or whatever without static IPs, these toys are not for you.