Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!iuvax!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!uxe.cso.uiuc.edu!mcdonald From: mcdonald@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: Diskless NeXT's?? Message-ID: <245300019@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu> Date: 10 Aug 89 19:59:00 GMT References: <192101@<1989Aug8> Lines: 31 Nf-ID: #R:<1989Aug8:192101:uxe.cso.uiuc.edu:245300019:000:1626 Nf-From: uxe.cso.uiuc.edu!mcdonald Aug 10 14:59:00 1989 >Instead of trashing the "world on a disk" concept NeXT could implement an >operating system in which the system files would remain in the machine and >files needed to customize and run the system would be on the users floptical. >This would allow Joe user to be king of his environment, and would let the >workstation retain enough integrity to be a functioning, secure member of the >network. Whenever Joe NMIs however, it would only dump his customizations, the >system would remain intact. Thus Joe gets all the power of being standalone >yet has access to the network. I don't understand this. I get my NeXt in a box. I take it out and plug it in. I install the operating system, making myself root. What do you want to prohibit me from doing? I paid for a machine to do my bidding. Are you proposing that machine come from the factory set so the purchaser can't become root, or that root be unable to do certain things? If you can't do certain things, like write to certain disk blocks (where the security code is) what happens if one of those blocks get corrupted and some important feature of the machine is disabled? How does it get fixed if I can't boot from the optical? This whole scheme sounds impractical. Or are you proposing some scheme such as having a serial number permanently in the machine so that to boot as root from the optical you have to know the number? This is of course OK in itself, so long as the operating system is bundled with the hardware, but is rendered objectionable as it could lead to other copy protected software. I would not buy such a machine, but others might. Doug McDonald