First off, thanks to all for the info; I at least now have a base from which 
to start.

> the small business with say 5-10 major machines to backup, a
> dedicated software raid server with a rack of big drives, running
> rsync, also has a cost and speed advantage.  I know of one such
> setup with a capacity of 320 gigs in 4 160 gig drives that does its

Hell, you might as well start talking Coda to me. Which is another 
possibility.

> about 1600 USD at the time.  Is it as dependable as tape? Time will
> tell.  Can you take it offsite?  In a sense, yes, by cycling enough
> drives thru each slot in the array and letting the raid rebuild

I'm not really keen on this idea. Although relative to the price of a DDS 
drive it is affordable (for just one or two harddrives). My main problem is 
that the drives will be handled by average users. Hrm.

..Brian
-- 
Init Systems  -  Linux consulting
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