Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!iuvax!purdue!decwrl!adobe!greid From: greid@adobe.com (Glenn Reid) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: Student's view of NeXT marketing plan Message-ID: <1054@adobe.UUCP> Date: 8 Aug 89 18:18:55 GMT References: <4866@tank.uchicago.edu> Reply-To: greid@adobe.COM (Glenn Reid) Organization: Adobe Systems Incorporated, Mountain View Lines: 42 In article J Greely writes: >...and while I'm dreaming, I want a pony. :-) > > The first problem I have with the "world in a pocket" idea is >that those NeXTs will of necessity be standalone or minimally >networked. > If I were putting together a cluster of NeXTs here, they would be >diskless clients of a non-NeXT server, hooked into the department >network. A few standalone machines for casual use wouldn't be a bad >idea, but they would not be networked to the rest. I presume the reason you would not network these machines together is "security"? Security can be a false idol, I think. If you pretend the NeXT machine is yet another Vax or Sun or Apollo UNIX machine, and you tie it into your existing network, then you have some security problems to worry about, mainly because you are operating under the premise that your network is already secure. One of the main reasons that UNIX "security" is such a big issue is that there has been, traditionally, almost NO way for users to take data off the system and put it in their pockets. Professors are forced to leave exams and grades on the system, etc. What else would you do? Write out a tape and then read it back in when you want to work? If you look at microcomputers, nobody even has a password on many of the systems. If something is sensitive, you put it on a floppy and lock it up in your desk. With the NeXT optical disks, that becomes completely practical, and the notion of security is less an issue, I think. >You're right, you *have* been reading propaganda :-). It's an >interesting dream, but it still needs some polish. In five years, >that model may be practical, but I don't think either NeXT or the >university market is ready to support it successfully now. I wouldn't >be too unhappy if I were proven wrong, though. If the optical disk were, say, three times as fast as it is now, don't you think this model would be practical today?