Re: [tlug] HDD Reliability (drifting topic)

["Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon" <ronfaxon@example.com>]

>Also, companies like IBM have economies of scale, which makes it possible for
>them to maintain profitability (probably) on manufacturing and selling hard
>drives. If you sell a million drives on which your profit margin is but a
>dollar, you are still making a million dollars
>
Ummm... yeah... but the fierce competition between manufacturers ends up 
driving prices down to a level that... hmmm... you're right I guess - I 
can't blame that on the big bloody M specifically, but they are very 
clearly taking in more than they need.  Incidentally - the IBM hard 
drives suddenly started appearing with Hitachi's name on them - did IBM 
sell its hard drive manufacturing off to Hitachi?  If so, it can't be 
all that profitable.  Also, I based that observation on an industry 
article I read a while back that discussed how the price competition 
between hard drive manufacturers was such that they were finding it 
increasingly difficult to turn a profit on them.  Ah!  There you go - 
it's competition!  And the big bloody M knows that - which is why they 
do dirty business to sabotage the chances of anything they view as a 
possible threat.  Fair and open competition leads to lower prices.  I 
don't mind buying software - I'm on my third boxed set of Suse Linux, I 
bought one boxed set of Red Hat, and I (most recently) bought the Linux 
version of EditPad Pro.  I'm happy to pay a fair price for a good 
product, but I don't like being overcharged for shiney boxes full of 
overhyped and half-stolen ideas.  I've aleady paid too much to the big 
bloody M - and am trying hard not to send them any more of my money.