Re: [WinMac] Re: Uptime

Dan Schwartz(expresso[at]snip.net)
Thu, 20 Aug 1998 00:44:55 -0400

Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]
Next message: Chris Jackson: "Re: [WinMac] Win95/98/Mac Ethernet Connection"
Previous message: Leigh Eichel: "RE: [WinMac] Win95/98/Mac Ethernet Connection"
In reply to: Gary Lauterback: "[WinMac] Win95/98/Mac Ethernet Connection"
Next in thread: Chris Mueller: "Re: [WinMac] Re: Uptime"

Dear Marc,

I've become spoiled with NT's protection: When it crashes all the wat to
a BSOD (very rare; but it DOES happen) it executes a dump for debugging
purposes. Most of the time, the BSOD message is cryptic... But the fact
that NT does not freeze up completely allows it to initiate a reboot
command.

And guess what: It works.

Even when an application goes haywire and freezes the screen, the other
services running continue to run. This is called "protected memory." And
this is the reason Apple first tried to create Copland... Then port
NeXTStep into Rhapsody... Yada yada yada...

Don't get me wrong: I started out with a 128K Mac, and I own 3 of them.
But after a while, you get tired of banging your head against the wall.

Also, don't confuse my liking of NT with my dislike of the Intel x86
platform: NT runs MUCH better on a DEC Alpha RISC platform than it does
on the Intel CISC platform. When you see NT running on a DEC Alpha,
you'll wonder how you've ever got along without it.

Pasted below is an answer to a query from Brett Mendel, who is a writer
from LAN Times.

Cheers!

Dan

At 10:51 PM 8/19/98 -0500, Marc wrote:

>On 8/18/98 at 10:01 PM -0400, Dan Schwartz wrote:

>>Also, the "automatic server restart device" is built into Windows NT:
When

>>a crash occurs, there is a Preference where the OS automatically
reboots.

>>The equivalent of a Mac cherry bomb is the "BSOD" (Blue Screen Of
Death) --

>>When this occurs after a few seconds the machine automatically
restarts. I

>>just wish the MacOS could do this!

>This would seem to require special hardware. I don't know how an OS
can

>reboot itself when the OS itself has crashed!

>>Or, you can move the Mac to another building that

>>will have power; and notify the campus sysop to use his SNMP console
to

>>reassign the IP routing to the new location.

>Impossible. Sorry.

> --Marc

-----------

RESPONSE TO LAN TIMES QUERY BELOW:

-----------

>>>>

Dear Brett:

I'm a Macintosh consultant who has branched out in the last 2 years to
add support for NT. I support -- And run here at my home LAN testbed --
both Alpha and Intel NT servers, as well as a bunch of Macs. In general,
the Alpha's are the most stable of any machine I service, support, or
own.

Here's my opinion as to why NT running on an Alpha is more stable than
on an Intel platform (as seen through the tinted glasses of a Mac
consultant):

It is easy to write a stable operating system when you have to support
less than 100 platform variations... This is one of the reasons the MacOS
has been so profitable for Apple for so many years. Along those same
lines, there aren't that many variations of the Alpha platform, so,
following the Macintosh platform's line of reasoning it is much easier to
write a stable OS for the Alpha than it would be to write one for the
(literally) millions of PC-"compatible" variations.

[Permission is granted to quote and publish any or all of this letter.]

Yours truly,

Daniel L. ("Dan") Schwartz

Dan's Macintosh Consulting

Suite 1306

1840 Frontage Road

Cherry Hill, NJ 08034-2205

609-795-8965

At 02:12 PM 8/18/98 -0700, Brett wrote:

>Is anyone running NT on both Alpha and Intel servers? I'm working on a

>story for a networking trade magazine, and I'm curious how people will

>decide between the two if Compaq makes servers with Alpha processors
more