Also Gigabit Ethernet requires CAT5e cables so only newer CAT5 stuff works. Just me being picky IDE may be going the way of AGP for hard drives but it is still needed for CD/DVD drives unless you use SATA->IDE converters. Like AGP it is still needed for legacy compatability with hard drives.
Right, well that's what I was getting at, but I guess that's not what I said... Most home users are going to have the 5e stuff anyways, as home networks have only become mainstream since the last couple of years.
And right again about the IDE drives. I haven't heard anything about SATA CD/DVD drives yet. And I'm pretty sure some will want to bring over and existing IDE drive as well.
Here's an article on PPC on Linux which could be relevant to the discussion. It focuses mostly on how to run Linux on PPC, but also indicates a growing trend in running Linux on PPC platforms.