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From: jcav@ellis.uchicago.edu (john  cavallino)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: ? Apple LANs
Message-ID: <1991Mar7.233745.29632@midway.uchicago.edu>
Date: 7 Mar 91 23:37:45 GMT
References: <9103041603.AA01989@apple.com> <4087.27d252c9@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu> <45061@ut-emx.uucp>
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In article <45061@ut-emx.uucp> daveh@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (David H. Huang) writes:
>In article <4087.27d252c9@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu> rlcollins@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu (Ryan 'Gozar' Collins) writes:
>>From what I here, the new Macs have the capability of booting off of a 
>>network, and also can boot without a disk. I don't remember how it does it 
>>though.
>
>Well, you can't _really_ boot off the network. The newer Macs have a
>built in ROMDisk that you can boot from and you can access a file
>server through that, but it isn't booting from the server. No extra
>inits are loaded, not many fonts, and not much else. It's basically
>the smallest bootable system disk, and you can't do much with it (I
>think the LC one has MacBugs though). Also, I doubt if Apple intended
>for the Romdisk to be used as a way to access the fileserver from a
>diskless Mac on a regular basis, since on the LC, you have to hold
>down Control-Command-X-O (a two-handed thing) while using your third
>hand to turn the thing on (the switch is on the back). Or you could
>use your foot to flip on a power strip or something, but it's not an
>easy-to-do thing...

I suspect that in the future there will be a more friendly way to configure
a Mac for network boot (probably something in the Control Panel, saved in
the non-volatile PRAM).  I also suspect that in said future you will be
able to store a System Folder on the network server, to which your Mac
could switch after the initial ROM-based boot, thus giving you your custom
fonts, DAs, INITS, etc.  This capability is rumored to be one of the major
new features of AppleShare 3.0.

-- 
John Cavallino                      |     EMail: jcav@midway.uchicago.edu
University of Chicago Hospitals     |    USMail: 5841 S. Maryland Ave, Box 145
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"Opinions, my boy. Just opinions"   | Telephone: 312-702-6900