Cheap, good tulips...

[alex]

I also wrote to Wisecom, and I got a response.  Unfortunately, I think
they answered me because they thought I was building a cluster.  

I tried to explain the linux NIC driver situation, about how the good
drivers were coming out of NASA, which was developing the drivers for
their cluster.  I said that if they could make clean, genuine DEC
tulips available on the web at a low price, they'd arguably be
offering the best NIC for the buck for linux users, and they'd
probably sell a lot of cards.

The response I got asked me about the cluster I was building, so I
didn't follow up on it.

Unfortunately, I think that Intel NICs are probably the way to go.  I
have some linksys NICs that are working perfectly with the tulip
driver, but I'm wary of buying more, because you never know what chips
you'll get.  On top of that, the time we're all putting into this is
probably worth a lot more than the marginal cost of the Intel cards.

It's too bad there aren't better industry guidelines for labeling
cards.  I wouldn't mind companies using different chipsets if it was
possible to cope with it.  Right now, you pretty much have to order
the card, open up the box, and look at the chips to see what's going
on.