OS-X Server: Not ready for prime time yet

Daniel L. Schwartz(expresso[at]snip.net)
Mon, 28 Jun 1999 16:07:32 -0400

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WinMac Digest #353 - Monday, June 28, 1999

  Re: WordPerfect 5.1 replacement and now Adobe Acrobat
          by "Victor Forberger" <vforberg@lynx.dac.neu.edu>
  I would like to unsubscribe
          by "Teena Rawlings" <Teena.Rawlings@kiewit.com>
  OS-X Server: Not ready for prime time yet
          by "Daniel L. Schwartz" <expresso@snip.net>

Subject: Re: WordPerfect 5.1 replacement and now Adobe Acrobat
From: Victor Forberger <vforberg@lynx.dac.neu.edu>
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 09:09:44 -0400
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Thanks for the suggestions so far.

Yes, Adobe Acrobat is an option. Indeed, I've installed MacGS
(ghostscript for Mac) and for the text documents that I create it works
wonderfully. I even have an applescript applet that I can drop the .PS
files on to make the conversions.

There are two problems with this solution, however. First, as I said
the quality and software on the Wintel machines is sporadic. I've been
on computers where I first need to go on to the web, find Acrobat
reader, and install it if I want to use it. Software on the network is
getting to be standardized and hence more available, but... future
promises don't provide working solutions for now.

Second, writing a pdf and then going to another machine to print can be
cumbersome. The benefit of WordPerfect is that I can create my
documents and get the collating I need no matter if I'm using my Mac
(with RealPC) or a Wintel machine. WP may be a dinosaur, but it still
has teeth, especially when all I'm writing are syllabi, tests, and
homework assignments.

Dan, I haven't tried your suggesting about getting the DOS window to run
in NT (I went on vacation this weekend to escape the heat this weekend),
but thanks. That may do the trick if I don't have a major Y2K problem
with WP.

thanks,
Victor

-- Victor Forberger Law, Policy, and Society Program 305 Cushing Hall, Northeastern University Boston, MA 02115 617-373-4677 (office) 617-373-4691 (fax)

Dept. of Anthropology and Sociology 501 Holmes Hall, Northeastern University Boston, MA 02115 617-373-4994 (office) 617-373-2688 (fax)

Subject: I would like to unsubscribe From: "Teena Rawlings" <Teena.Rawlings@kiewit.com> Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 14:02:50 -0500 Mime-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit

I would like to unsubscribe from this mailing list

teena.rawlings@kiewit.com Teena Rawlings Peter Kiewit Sons' Inc., 3555 Farnam St., Omaha, NE 68131 Phone: (402) 342-2052 ext.2178 Fax: (402) 271-2939

Subject: OS-X Server: Not ready for prime time yet From: "Daniel L. Schwartz" <expresso@snip.net> Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 16:07:32 -0400 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/enriched; charset="us-ascii"

Good afternoon!

While researching NT vs linux "shootouts" by the likes of MindCraft, Ziff-Davis, and c't (German magazine), I stumbled across, as a footnote to the c't article, the following...

From <<http://www.heise.de/ct/english//99/13/186-1/>:

MacOS X (re)served

</bigger></bold><bigger><paraindent><param>left</param>

</paraindent></bigger><paraindent><param>left</param>With MacOS X, Apple is targeting the server market. The Unix-based operating system with integrated Apache is especially intended for performance web server use. We were curious and put our test setup against a server of this kind. However, the results can only convey a first impression since we optimized neither MacOS X nor the integrated Apache for this task. The entire system ran with its default settings.

In addition, although the G3 Mac with its PowerPC 750e (400 MHz) we used does compare to a Pentium II Xeon (450 MHz), its memory of 128 MBytes RAM is rather on the small side. This alone is enough reason to run this server 'out of competition' here.

Installing the server is the simplest task: Insert MacOS X Server 'Core OS', boot from CD, doubleclick on installer. This causes the computer to re-start, boot MacOS X Server and load an assistant to help you select the required components. Apache is selected by default. Ten or fifteen minutes later you enter IP address and name - ready.

Despite the handicaps we mentioned earlier, MacOS X Server produced remarkable results which were only marginally below the Linux and NT results. Some manual adjustment should produce at least comparable results. The drop towards the end of the graph on page 187 is probably due to the smaller scale memory. The values for randomly selected pages suffered even more from this handicap and were, therefore, omitted.

However, testing CGI scripts resulted in a fatal error which puts a question mark on the suitability of MacOS X as a web server in its present state. If 32 or more processes within a loop called a URL pointing at a script, it took about 30 seconds until the server grinded to a halt: 'system panic', and nothing can be done.

We assume this is due to faulty task administration within the MacOS X kernel. Find a small script in [5] which allowed to reproduce the crash locally.

</paraindent>

And, reference [5], which is in the middle of the page:

[5] CGI-MacPanic: <<http://www.heise.de/ct/99/13/186/CGI-MacPanic>, see also CGI Causes MacOS X Server To Panic <<http://www.heise.de/ct/english/99/13/186/>

</paraindent>

It's worth noting that unlike MindCraft, the folks at c't can hardly be called Microsoft sycophants.

Cheers!

Dan

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