I'm about to buy the following three items. Linux will be the main OS
installed on my system (I still need DOS from time to time). I would
appreciate any comments regarding the selected hardware and/or prices.
The major use of the system will be LISP/Prolog/TeX/Postscript.


 o  520MB Fujitsu 3.5" 12ms HD             $1099.00
 o  Always SCSI controller                 $ 179.00
 o  Archive Viber 250MB Tape drive         $ 499.00


The current specs of the system is:
 
 o  486/33 ISA
 o  16MB RAM
 o  170MB IDE Hard drives. 


My specific questions are:

 1) Is the Always controller a good choice ?

 2) Is there any inheritied limitations in the controller/tape drive
    that prohibits linux from supporting it in the future ? If enough
    material is avaialable, I can try writing a driver myself. 

 3) Do SCSI and IDE coexist ?


 Thanks for your help and, as always, thanks for everyone who
 contributed to the success of Linux. 


 - Ziad
   najem@cs.uiuc.edu