🚀 go-pugleaf

	Here at the Univ. of Cincinnati, we have two Macintosh labs that
are available for general student use.  Each lab has several Macs which
are connected via localtalk.  Each Mac has its own 20Mb hard drive,
which contains all of the software the is available in the lab.  While
this is a functional solution it has many disadvantages, including lack
of security, several installations instead of one, etc.

	The biggest problem is security, since anyone can sit down at
any Mac and delete and/or copy whatever they want.  File deletions are
especially annoying, since I have the pleasure of hiking across campus
to restore the missing file(s).

	I am now in the process of gathering information about file
servers for the Macintosh labs.  Of particular interest (at least until
I'm convinced otherwise) is the Jasmine DirectServe, which lists for
$1795 (without hard disk).  The DirectServe has no monitor or keyboard,
and has apparently been optimized for file serving.  All management
functions are performed from the one of the clients.

	The biggest advantage that I can see is that this solution does
not require the dedication of a Macintosh.  Although you do have a
separate, dedicated file server, you don't have a complete Mac system
sitting there looking unused.

	Does anyone have any experience with the Jasmine DirectServe?
How does it perform?  How does it compare with other possible file
serving solutions?  Thanks in advance for any information.

--
Don Rainwater, Univ. of Cincinnati Computer Center
rainwatr@ucunix.san.uc.edu
rainwatr@ucbeh.san.uc.edu
rainwatr@ucbeh.bitnet