In message <199701210243.UAA20519@idea.exnet.iastate.edu> "Phil Knaack" writes:
: 	Actually, I often wonder about the need for such tools as DOS
: formatters and filesystem checkers for UNIX; I mean, where does it stop?
: Do we need a formatter for ext2fs? NTFS? DEC AdvFS?  =-)

There is a need for DOS formatters on the pica port of NetBSD and the
arc port of OpenBSD.  Why, you ask, do you need a DOS file system for
a MIPS machine?  The boot roms will only boot off of a DOS FAT file
system, so you need to have a small one on your hard disk to boot
from, and then go from there.  I'm told that many of the new Alpha
boxes have only the NT console, so you need to boot off of DOS or NTFS
(not sure about the latter) any OS that you wish to run on them.

Given this requirement, you'll need some kind of formatter to even
install the OS on these machines.  Sometimes you'll get lucky and NT
will be on them, or you'll have access to the NT installation tools,
but many times you won't.

Warner