Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!iuvax!purdue!mentor.cc.purdue.edu!j.cc.purdue.edu!aeh
From: aeh@j.cc.purdue.edu (Dale Talcott)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Floptical usable alone
Summary: yes, barely
Message-ID: <9837@j.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: 10 Aug 89 02:57:45 GMT
References: <7309@microsoft.UUCP>
Reply-To: aeh@j.cc.purdue.edu (Dale Talcott)
Organization: Purdue University
Lines: 21

In article <7309@microsoft.UUCP> t-jondu@microsoft.UUCP (Jonathan Dubman) writes:
>Question:
>Is the NeXT usable with one floptical and no hard disk, besides the fact that
>it's a bit slower?
Yes.  That's how mine is configured.  Some simplistic tests I did early
on, timing launching of applications, showed the OD to be mid-way between
the SCSI and NFS to a SCSI Next server, with the SCSI being twice the
speed of NFS.  (I.e. the OD was 3/4's the speed of the SCSI drive at
starting applications.)

Another way of putting it is: where there are comparable applications, the
Next running from an OD feels somewhat slower than a Mac Plus with a SCSI HD.

But still usable, if you're a patient sort.

As others have mentioned, the biggest problem is that standard Next software
fills the OD.  You have to throw a lot of stuff away to give yourself room
to work.

Dale Talcott, Purdue University Computing Center
aeh@j.cc.purdue.edu, j.cc.purdue.edu!aeh, aeh@purccvm.bitnet