Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!olivea!uunet!world!boris
From: boris@world.std.com (Boris Levitin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Mac Classic question
Message-ID: <1990Dec14.080544.12940@world.std.com>
Date: 14 Dec 90 08:05:44 GMT
References: <48129@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU> <1990Dec2.093816.26712@world.std.com> <1990Dec4.193225.16330@DMI.USherb.CA> <1990Dec10.001749.9393@midway.uchicago.edu> <7777@hub.ucsb.edu>
Organization: The World @ Software Tool & Die
Lines: 44

doner@henri.ucsb.edu (John Doner) writes:
>A better thing [than theoretical operation from a server copy of the System]
>to do is to copy the system, finder, etc., to a
>local RAMdisk.  I've been using a MacPlus in much this way for some
>time now.  It works pretty well; I keep exactly one floppy by the
>machine to boot up with, install the RAMdisk, and supply a copy of the
>system for the RAMdisk.  All the applications I use with that machine
>are out on the server.  If the ROM of the MacPlus had the system,
>finder, etc. plus the code to create the RAMdisk, I wouldn't need the
>floppy at all.

>Sure, programs are slower to load than off a hard
>disk, but probably faster than off a floppy.

No by a wide margin.  In my experience, this is not true even when the network
is composed of very few machines, much less on your *typical* AppleTalk net
with some 30 workstations, a couple of printers and mail.

>In any case, for many
>programs, most of the loading is done during initialization, so you
>don't get too much net activity later.  

Many or most of the most popular general-productivity applications do not
belong to this category.

>Furthermore, with adequate
>memory, you can copy applications over the network, so you get your
>very own local copy on the RAMdisk.

Which raises the question: why is all this hassle necessary?  A hard-disk-
equipped workstation, access-managed by FileGuard (from ASD Software) or
similar program if you're concerned about security, makes a lot more sense
and is a lot easier on the user than any currently-imaginable AppleTalk-based
diskless workstation configuration.  Remember that the Unix machines which
are commonly used diskless use Ethernet, which is a lot faster, and their
users still complain a lot about server access speed.

Boris Levitin
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Audience & Marketing Research              wgbx!boris_levitin@athena.mit.edu
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(The opinions expressed herein are my own and do not necessarily coincide 
with those of my employer or anyone else.  The WGBH tag is for ID only.)