Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!crackers!m2c!ulowell!swan!asherman From: asherman@dino.ulowell.edu (Aaron Sherman) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo Subject: Re: How to modify the "kernel'? Message-ID: Date: 7 Sep 90 15:46:36 GMT References: <6881.26e59640@jetson.uh.edu> <25786@boulder.Colorado.EDU> Sender: news@ul-cs.ulowell.edu Organization: CPE: University of Lowell -- Lowell, MA Lines: 66 In-reply-to: huntting@boulder.Colorado.EDU's message of 6 Sep 90 20:21:39 GMT huntting@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Brad Huntting) writes: In article <6881.26e59640@jetson.uh.edu> cosc4fp@jetson.uh.edu writes: >This is driving crazy..... how does one configure the "kernel" on an >Apollo? I need to raise the max number of processes on a machine. I too would like to change some system paramaters on my gateway machine which runs several daemons, and cnews. Specifically the 'max open files' parameter. But like other non-standard aspects of HPollo's (swap partitions, acl's, /etc/{passwd,group}, dm, type-mgrs, device-drivers and many many more) I'm sure "it's a feature not a bug". A feature which, like so many others, makes these machines more quirky less usefull and more difficult to integrate into a heterogenous environment. When are companies (hp/apollo, dec, +many others) going to learn that nonstandard software environments are expensive, and *devalue* their systems? Sad. The Apollos are probably the most powerful distributed computing environment ever seen, and some people just won't be happy until they can have them act like a toy. I'm sorry if this sounds like a flame (I was going to send it personally, and be a bit harsher, but this is something that needs to be aired out). Your list of "bugs": Swap partitions - There is no swap partition on an Apollo, they have paging "files" which gives you the ability to use only the space you need. When Sun can do this I'll be impressed. ACL's - What unix machine can even come close to this kind of functionallity?! I've loved this since 9.5, and was MAD when they made it conform to Unix-like modes. /etc/{passwd,group} - I suppose you like yp? 'Nuf said. dm - The best development environment/windowing system that I've seen type-mgrs - Usefull. Not a feature that I have much use for, but it makes things more reasonable for some of the users. Certainly NOT a detriment. device-drivers - I remember the shock that one of our people had when he had to write a device driver for a SysV box. He couldn't belive it was so awkward! The problem here is that Domain/OS is NOT Unix, and the more HP/Apollo tries to make it Unix the more people will get frustrated. Remember that for YEARS Unix was not "standard". Standards. Bah! Standards brought us MSDOS. Standards brought us MOTIF. I much prefer the old Apollo attitude. You want BSD, have it. You want SystemV, have it. Heck, you can make Apollos act like a PC. You can have DDS, TCP/IP or DECNet. You can use X, the DM, even MS-Windows if you're sick. Since the HP-takeover though, people like this poster have been having more of a voice in the direction Apollo's taking, and I fear the day an Apollo is just as much a toy as the next machine. -AJS -- asherman@dino.ulowell.edu or asherman%cpe@swan.ulowell.edu Note that as of 7/18/90 that's asherman@dino.cpe.ulowell.edu "That that is is that that is not is not is that it it is."