> There is one specific question on my mind - I haven't purchased a unit yet
-
> I'd like to do so shortly. I have heard that new units on the shelves now
> cannot boot from a Cd-Rom - which I understand is the current method of
> bootstraping the serial-port loader utility.

Units appearing on the shelves will shortly be unable to read any sort of
information from CD media.  This is in specific response to the
proliferation of piracy of Dreamcast games.

I suspect that a motivated hardware hacker will be able to figure out how to
modify this type of Dreamcast.

jwb