Xref: utzoo comp.unix.wizards:6119 comp.arch:3149
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!hao!ames!sdcsvax!ncr-sd!greg
From: greg@ncr-sd.SanDiego.NCR.COM (Greg Noel)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards,comp.arch
Subject: Re: Jerry Pournelle on UNIX (From BYTE)
Message-ID: <1971@ncr-sd.SanDiego.NCR.COM>
Date: 7 Jan 88 06:04:22 GMT
References: <1495@osiris.UUCP> <2126@haddock.ISC.COM> <1497@osiris.UUCP>
Reply-To: greg@ncr-sd.SanDiego.NCR.COM (Greg Noel)
Organization: NCR Corporation, Rancho Bernardo
Lines: 25

In article <1497@osiris.UUCP> mjr@osiris.UUCP (Marcus J. Ranum) writes:
>	There would be a few problems with making UNIX ROM-only - at least
>the root file system: there are all the various files in /etc that do 
>benefit from the occasional change.

Difficult, yes, but not impossible.  For a long time, the Air Force
supported a Unix system with a read-only root -- they wanted to have
a simple recovery proceedure in case of a failure to boot.  This was
prior to the hardening of the filesystem, so a failure to boot was a
real problem -- any crash while modifying the root could cause it.  To
always be able to just load the root from tape and boot was a blessing.

>	I also see making parts of UNIX (sh ?) in ROM as a bad idea ....
>If we had to unplug chips and bring an engineer in [for every fix] ...
>it would cost someone too much somewhere, ....

Possible -- but instead of ROM chips, how about a CD-ROM?  A compact
disk is more than 500 megabytes, the drives are getting cheaper every
day, and the disk is very inexpensive to replace -- and the users could
replace it themselves.  It's possible that the generic personal
computer of the future will routinely have a CD-ROM inside it to
provide all of the "standard" features that people are beginning to
expect in their machines.
-- 
-- Greg Noel, NCR Rancho Bernardo   Greg.Noel@SanDiego.NCR.COM  or  greg@ncr-sd