>> 
>> Scrollback is useful for any number of things (especially boot messages which
>> aren't syslog'd). Being able to only look back at them once before I may
>> swap VT's (say to start X) makes this not as useful as it could be.
>
>but boot messages have a very specific buffer they live in for this very 
>purpose, because you cant run something like screen for that. that buffer
>also is good for other reasons, i doubt that was the primary motivation.. 
>but general scrollback once youre in userland, using something like screen
>for that i think, is the better solution that sticking it in the kernel. 
>just because linux does it doesnt mean we must!
>

No, I was referring to the multitude of messages that rc.d files output.
Those are stored nowhere else (i.e. see my comment about boot messages which
aren't sysloged). 

James