🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <8Z5JA=200WB9Q7YJcM@andrew.cmu.edu> mr2t+@andrew.cmu.edu (Michael Tod Rose) writes:
>
>Sun, as you might know, makes the popular TOPS filesharing software for the
>Mac; believe it or not, they also offer versions for PCs, Suns and (I believe)
>DEC VAXen.
> [...]
>There may be other solutions (I understand that Novell has a few neat tricks),
>but so far as I know, TOPS is the only company offering plug-n-play Sun
>fileserver software for Mac networks.

This is partly true.  I don't think they make a VAX version.  Also, it
is really far from plug-n-play.  We installed it under BSD 3.5 on a
Sun file server.  The installation instructions were wrong, the
installation makefiles were wrong.  The only way we could get it to
install correctly was to make use of the Sun field guy that visited
our site once a week.  It requires modifying the kernel.  Yeech.

In my humble opinion, your best bet is to get a Gatorbox from Cayman
Systems.  It will sit there and make ANY NFS Ethernet host an
AppleShare server.  You will not require additional software for the
Macs since AppleShare client software is part of the System.  You will
not require any software for your hosts.  The combined GatorBox and
AppleShare<->NFS software is ~$4900.  Considering that TOPS for the
Sun is around $1500 and then you start paying ~$100 per Mac, it
doesn't take long to make up the cost.

Further IPT has come out with a TOPS-like INIT that performs
distributed AppleShare (for the technically minded, this product is
basically an AFP-compliant TOPS rather than a TFP-compliant one).  Any
Macintosh can become an AppleShare server without being dedicated
(much like any TOPS user can publish).  Therefore, if you ever need to
go to a more distributed system, the door is open.  (BTW, the IPT
software is MUCH less per node than TOPS.)

Good stuff.


--
                Jeffrey A. Hallett, PET Software Engineering
                    GE Medical Systems, W641, PO Box 414
                            Milwaukee, WI  53201
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