Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!ub.d.umn.edu!cs.umn.edu!kanefsky
From: kanefsky@cs.umn.edu (Steve Kanefsky)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: ROM Disk and other machines?
Message-ID: <1990Nov9.044036.7385@cs.umn.edu>
Date: 9 Nov 90 04:40:36 GMT
References: <5932@munnari.oz.au> <11074.2736d042@amherst.bitnet> <1990Nov9.032405.13315@cs.utk.edu>
Organization: University of Minnesota, Minneapolis - CSCI Dept.
Lines: 56

In article <1990Nov9.032405.13315@cs.utk.edu> wnn@ornl.gov (Wolfgang N. Naegeli) writes:
>In article <11074.2736d042@amherst.bitnet> ksbolduan@amherst.bitnet writes:
>> Is this ROM disk just in the Classic or in all the machines with the 
>512k ROMs?
>
>I have only seen it on the Classic, however an Apple insider has hinted 
>that it is just better hidden in the LC and the IIsi.

That seems unlikely, since the LC and the IIsi need the extra ROM for things
like Color Quickdraw, right?

>It's purpose is simply to boot the machine for use as a diskless 
>workstation, then switch to a System (7.0 or higher) on an AppleShare 
>server.  AppleShare 3.0 (or whatever it's going to be called) is supposed 
>to provide good support for that.  The local diskette drive, if present, 
>will be available for data files, without a need for disk swapping, and 
>you can have dozens of fonts available, as many as are installed on the 
>server.

Hmm, I wonder if there's some PRAM or something for AppleShare Prep info.

>I think this really is an excellent idea for teaching labs, etc. This will 
>make it much easier to guarantee that all Macs use the same configuration. 

Yep.  Right now, I'm trying VolumeImage, which makes sure that each hard
disk is an exact image of a partition on the file server.  Sometimes it
runs into problems, but when it works it's great. 

Come to think of it, I can't imagine how slow it would be to have a lab
full of Classics running diskless over LocalTalk (or PhoneNet or whatever).
Perhaps with some extra RAM and a healthy RAM cache...

>I hope there will be a mechanism that a network administrator can 
>optionally set to prevent any applications to be run from or copied to or 
>from a local diskette. This would help prevent the spreading of viruses 
>and with enforcement of copyright laws.

Using LaunchBreak, one can enforce licensing agreements while still allowing 
free copying of the software (the copies are no good outside the lab) and 
running of the software from floppies, hard disks, or file servers.

With VolumeImage, a one-step operation automatically restores any modified
files with clean copies, and optionally closes opened folders and deletes
superfluous files (or moves them to a lost&found folder).  I just make
system disks with VolumeImage as the startup application, and lab attendants
are instructed to just restart with these disks whenever problems occur
that may be due to missing or misplaced files, viruses, etc.  I've had
a few problems with it, though, especially when trying to restore multiple
machines at the same time.  It also seems to want to replace a lot of files
that probably don't need to be replaced, but when there aren't many to
be replaced it works very quickly.


-- 
Steve Kanefsky             
kanefsky@cs.umn.edu