Xref: utzoo comp.sys.apple:13734 comp.sys.apollo:2836 comp.unix.aux:1007 comp.unix.questions:14167 comp.sys.mac:33214 comp.sys.dec:1365 Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!leah!rpi!sun.soe.clarkson.edu!cline From: cline@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Marshall Cline) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple,comp.sys.apollo,comp.unix.aux,comp.unix.questions,comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.dec Subject: Re: Academic workstations -- Followups to comp.unix.questions ONLY Message-ID: Date: 9 Jun 89 20:56:18 GMT References: <507@lclark.UUCP> Sender: news@sun.soe.clarkson.edu Reply-To: cline@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Marshall Cline) Distribution: usa Organization: Clarkson University, Postdam NY Lines: 52 In-reply-to: cullum@lclark.UUCP's message of 8 Jun 89 23:39:18 GMT To avoid confusion, followups to this are requested to ONLY go to one newsgroup. I suggest comp.unix.questions. In article <507@lclark.UUCP> cullum@lclark.UUCP (Mike Cullum) writes: >We are in the process of considering the purchase of workstations for >a small lab in our Computer Science Department. Our proposed >configuration calls for 8 workstations (8Mb RAM, 200+Mb disk, large >monochrome display) and a server. >... >Any advice? Clarkson University has quite a number of workstations, so I guess I have enough experince to answer. However (almost) all ours are Sun's, so I can't compare. However, I can _STRONGLY_ recommend one feature in particular: We have a SINGLE disk server in our School of Engineering, all other workstations being diskless (thin wire 10Mb/s Ethernet), being connected via Sun's NFS. There are probably 20 or more "clients" running off this one server. Although we're pushing the performance of the disk server, the concept of a single disk server is the BEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD. The problem can be illustrated with our micro-computers (5000 or so AT class machines on the campus, well over 1000 with hard disks). Consider a student "Joe". Joe's files are on a particular machine. If that machine is busy today, he has to copy his files onto whatever machine he happens to get. Thus he duplicate all his files on all the machines he might be working on. Then there's the "which is the latest version?" question. The end result is that our students have to floppy-jocky everyday. Having a central location for files (the disk server) means that each workstation that you log onto acts like it has your files. No two versions, etc. Thus your comment for workstation having a 200+Mb disk is one which you may want to reconsider. There's a binary-compatibility problem with the NFS scheme, but we have almost all Sun-3's (68020, 68881). When we go to SparcStations (Sun-4's), we'll have to address the multiple /bin directories, etc. Hope this helps. Marshall -- ________________________________________________________________ Marshall P. Cline ARPA: cline@sun.soe.clarkson.edu ECE Department UseNet: uunet!sun.soe.clarkson.edu!cline Clarkson University BitNet: BH0W@CLUTX Potsdam, NY 13676 AT&T: (315) 268-6591