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From: hannum@handel.psu.edu (Charles Hannum)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next,comp.periphs.scsi
Subject: Re: How big should a cheap hard disk be?
Message-ID: <1990Jul9.033931.6186@acc.stolaf.edu>
Date: 9 Jul 90 03:39:31 GMT
References: <2827@media-lab.MEDIA.MIT.EDU> <127203@jake.encore.com>
Sender: news@acc.stolaf.edu
Organization: The Pennsylvania State University Public NeXT Laboratory
Lines: 56
In-Reply-To: wcarroll@encore.com's message of 2 Jul 90 21:42:21 GMT


In article <127203@jake.encore.com> wcarroll@encore.com (Mr. New Dad) writes:

   I thought the hard drive on a NeXT was just a unix swap disk and the
   floptical was the file/data disk. If this is true, what could you
   possibly need 40 MB, much less 170 MB, of swap disk for on what is 
   basically a single-user box?

   Am I totally off-base in my understanding of their literature? Does
   the hard drive store files?


Argh!  Time to clear up a few misconceptions:

  1) The 40MB "accelerator" drive is for swapping only.  If you don't have
     another hard disk, then all your data/etc. goes either on the OPTICAL
     (notice the lack of the letters 'fl') or on another machine to which
     you are connected via Ethernet.  NetBoot makes it relatively easy to
     keep a consistent set of files (and OS software) on a large number of
     machines.

  2) You *can* store other files on the "accelerator" drive, but this puts
     a BIG cramp on the amount of swap space you have available.  In fact,
     I believe the standard configuration also puts /tmp on the swapdisk
     (which, IMHO, is a Good Thing, but that's another discussion).  In
     reality, it's just any other filesystem which just *happens* to have
     the swapfile on it.  You could probably even put the swapfile on your
     optical if you wanted to...  (I do NOT recommend this, however, unless
     you'd      like to spend the next year waiting for an app to launch.)

  3) If you've ever run Mathematica and then "ls -l /private/vm/swapfile"
     you'll understand what you need 40MB of swap space for.  (Note that
     it is normally set up to 20MB when the machine is booted.)  It's
     really not a good idea to run out of swap space, unless you like
     system panics and rebooting your machine.

  4) The NeXT is DEFINITELY, EMPHATICALLY, *NOT* a single-user machine. It
     is true that only one person can be logged on the console (just like
     any other machine), but if it's networked you can log on remotely as
     with almost any other Unix box.  In our lab, we routinely have 3 or 4
     people logged in remotely to the Cubes.  (We only have 5 machines...)

  5) You've got an Ethernet connector.  If you're in any sort of decent
     computing environment, there's almost certainly an Ethernet network.
     Now plug the damned thing in!!!  Networking greatly increases the
     amount of software and information you have available.  You can read
     Usenet [B-)], ftp, send and receive email, etc.  (Make sure you have
     decent passwords set for 'me' and 'root' before you do this, though.
     B-I)

--
 
Virtually,
Charles Martin Hannum		 "Those who say a thing cannot be done should
Please send mail to:		  under no circumstances stand in the way of
hannum@schubert.psu.edu		  he who is doing it." - a misquote