🚀 go-pugleaf

In <71710@cup.portal.com> Bob_BobR_Retelle@cup.portal.com writes:

>OK, to restate the motherboard thing.. there IS standardization, and there
>is in MOST cases an easy upgrade path.  Nearly ALL motherboards come with
>CPU and BIOS chips.  There ARE some exceptions, but most PCs can be easily
>and inexpensively upgraded, either by the user themselves, or by any service
>technician without the need for physical modifications.

>(Incidentally, the original IBM PC itself cannot be upgraded this way
>because of the number and spacing of the slots.. I'm surprised no one
>brought that up..   :)

>The entire point, which seems to have been lost in all the shouting, is
>that for most owners of PCs, there IS an easy, and inexpensive upgrade
>path available, if they choose to take that route to greater speed or
>computing power.

So why does almost nobody do it? Why are there ads from companies
ditching a dozen '286s because they're buying all-new 486's? If 
it's so easy and cost-effective couldn't they bring in a technician
for a couple of hours to upgrade the old ones?

Open architectures have their advantages, but the ability to upgrade
cpu/clock... is not one commonly used. The flexibility to add
peripherals is the main advantage of an open bus. But with the
convergence on SCSI as a peripheral bus, even that advantage is
less important. And there are disadvantages too, like the 
responsibility of the user to configure this and that.

Werner