Points taken, guys. I kind of threw that remark out there knowing it's not a universal opinion.
My experience runs parallel with the emerging technology. When I bought my 880 five years ago, a 200mhz PC was the top speed available and Pro-Audio 5 was out. It was just much easier to get a dedicated unit. Not only was the PC not really up to the task (my opinion), but I don't believe Cakewalk was either. Not to mention the lower speed IDE hard drives. A fast/wide AV rated SCSI and controller card being a better option would have set me back about $800. That, plus the cost of the PC and software actually made the HD recorder more economical too.
Yeah, the portability of a hard disk recorder is nice, but to tell the truth, the only time I put it in a case and moved it was to dump tracks into Pro-Tools - two at a time.
With the PC setup I have now, If I wanted to fly tracks into another format, I could just save tracks to individual .wav files and burn a CD. No need to bring the hardware. And the nerve of Roland to charge $500 for their burner....
Another thing about portability. I think laptops are making that easier too.