Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!diplodocus.cis.ohio-state.edu!jgreely
From: jgreely@diplodocus.cis.ohio-state.edu (J Greely)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: NeXT concerns
Message-ID: <32681@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Date: 26 Jan 89 18:50:46 GMT
References: <4474@umd5.umd.edu>
Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Reply-To: J Greely <jgreely@cis.ohio-state.edu>
Organization: THE Ohio State University, CIS Dept.
Lines: 57

In article <4474@umd5.umd.edu> feldman@umd5.umd.edu (Mark Feldman) writes:
>        The university computing model requires that users be able to access
>	and share data easily throughout the campus.  When someone is forced
>	to remove their data (optical drive) when they leave a NeXT, they
>	are being forced to isolate their data.  An optical floppy at home,
>	left in a backpack or car, or anywhere that there isn't a NeXT is
>	useless.

My opinion on the use of optical discs for user files is that it's a
warm-fuzzy sort of thing.  We'd never be comfortable with it here, and
would give students home directories mounted from a generic NFS server.
The real use for the opticals is so that users can transport their own
material in a more useful form than magtape.  The option to use opticals
for non-critical files would take the drain off of the fileserver ("If
you *really* want a private copy of nethack, keep it on your own disc,
kid").

>	An optical drive-only NeXT isn't desirable in public workstation
>	rooms -- those rooms where students can access workstations.  The
>	best workstation for public rooms is a workstation that boots off
>	the network and uses file servers, perhaps keeping its swap space on
>	a local hard disk.

Booting off the network is supported, although we haven't had time
to set it up yet here.  This is the method of choice for a lab of
student workstations, and NeXT hasn't ignored it.  In fact, the
release notes mention several enhancements to BOOTP that will make
it easier to handle the whole process.

  My real concern with opticals in a student lab is verification of
machines.  If J Random Undergrad can reboot from his own disc, I
don't want him being trusted by our network for anything.  It boils
down to the statement that if someone has root access to one
optical-equipped NeXT box, he can be root on any others he comes
across.  This problem doesn't get any mention in the 0.8 release
notes.

>	I don't think that NeXT spent enough time looking at how higher
>	education uses workstations to facilitate information access and
>	exchange.

I don't think of the NeXT machine as a workstation, at least not in
the manner most people think of it.  Some people have called it a
Sun-killer, which is nonsense.  The orientation of the product will
put it into places where people would buy Macs, not Suns.  I don't
believe that any engineering or computer science program will buy
them for students.  Research, maybe.  Liberal arts departments are
more likely to use it for students (and how many of *them* can
afford it?).

  Personally, I've begun to think of the NeXT machine as a very
bright laser printer.

-=-
J Greely (jgreely@cis.ohio-state.edu; osu-cis!jgreely)
        The Ohio State University, Department of 
        Computer and Information Sciences