🚀 go-pugleaf

melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger) writes:


>In article <1400@heurikon.heurikon.com> gtaylor@vme.heurikon.com (Gregory Taylor) writes:


>[stuff about PC & Unix competitors deleted]

>Since I've never done any sysadmin, I have a question about for those
>of you who do.  How hard is it to pull a NeXT out of the box and use
>it?  That is, a non-networked machine?

>-Mike

It's easy to pull a NeXT out of the box and use it, as long as all you
want to do is use it standalone and preconfigured.  But putting a modem
on your box is not as simple as plugging in the cable and firing up your
comm program, for example.  And if you want more than one user to have
access to individual accounts on the system (either at the console or
via modem dialup), you're introducing some more things that PC users
don't have to deal with.  (Although the NeXTstep user management app is
not difficult to understand or use.)

Then there are things like setting up a dialup uucp feed for mail or
news, which involves sysadmin work no matter what kind of system you've
got.

None of this stuff is really difficult, though, for people who are
prepared to read documentation, and proceed carefully.  This is perhaps
different from the PC market, where the approach is more plug-n-play,
implying a lack of thought or research to accomplish things.  (Although
I do get a chuckle out of all the grief DOS users go through, what with
extended/expanded memory drivers, video drivers, IRQ addressing, etc.)

One thing NeXT could do is provide friendly NeXTstep apps for more of
the typical grunt work people need to do on these machines, to reduce
the amount of up-front sysadmin-type knowledge and skill required to
accomplish basic tasks.

For example, how tough could it be to cook up an app to install
standard Hayes-type modems?  You allow for a few basic variations on
the theme, like presence or absence of hardware flow control, and the
rest is pretty much similar between all modems.  Why force people to go
around editting /etc/remote, /etc/phones, /etc/ttys, etc.?  I know, I
know, if it's so easy, why don't I run along and write the app myself...
:~)
-- 
Royce Howland   --   Everything is IMHO   |  "I can eat enormous quantities
royce@splunge.uucp        (NeXTMail OK)   |   of ice-cream without being sick,
or royce%splunge@atlantis.uucp            |   Mrs. S-C-U-M."  --Mr. Neutron
or alberta!atlantis!splunge!royce or ...  |   C86Net: Mr._Neutron@RT.Alta