pj@oxy.edu (Paul Jonathan Estalilla Go) (04/09/90)
If floppy systems will almost be impossible to support, does that mean that Macs connected to a server will need a hard drive? Our public SEs have 800k drives, and 6.0.x IS a hassle enough. Maybe we should be able to boot off the server :-) Paul pj@oxy.edu
irilyth@cs.swarthmore.edu (Josh Smith) (04/10/90)
According to a recent AppleLink mailing recently received by our Campus Rep here at Swarthmore, "...to run System 7.0, you MUST have 2 megs AND a hard disk...period...end of story!!! There are NO plans to support floppy based systems!!!!" What does this mean? Will Apple stop building Macs with floppy drives? Is this for real, anyway? WHAT'S GOING ON? -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- | Reality: Josh Smith | Josh Smith '92 | | Internet: irilyth@cs.swarthmore.edu | Swarthmore College | | BITNet: JBS92@SWARTHMR.BITNET | 500 College Ave. | | #include <witty.quote> | Swarthmore, PA 19081-1397 | -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
jdevoto@Apple.COM (Jeanne A. E. DeVoto) (04/10/90)
In article <2XDH5TV@xavier.swarthmore.edu> irilyth@cs.swarthmore.edu (Josh Smith) writes: > According to a recent AppleLink mailing recently received by our Campus Rep >here at Swarthmore, "...to run System 7.0, you MUST have 2 megs AND a hard >disk...period...end of story!!! There are NO plans to support floppy based >systems!!!!" What does this mean? Will Apple stop building Macs with floppy >drives? Is this for real, anyway? WHAT'S GOING ON? "Floppy-based system" just means the machine is booted from a System Folder on a floppy disk. A hard-disk-based system can still use floppies for applications and data files. By the way, "...NO plans to support floppy-based systems!!!!" may be true, but if so, it's news to me. Would you mind emailing me exactly who sent out this AppleLink mailing? Thanks. -- ====== jeanne a. e. devoto ======================================== jdevoto@apple.com | You may not distribute this article under a jdevoto@well.UUCP | compilation copyright without my permission. ___________________________________________________________________ Apple Computer and I are not authorized | CI$: 72411,165 to speak for each other. | AppleLink: SQA.TEST
burton@umbc5.umbc.edu (Mr. Joel Burton; HONORS COLL (U)) (04/10/90)
In article <2XDH5TV@xavier.swarthmore.edu> irilyth@cs.swarthmore.edu (Josh Smith) writes: > > According to a recent AppleLink mailing recently received by our Campus Rep >here at Swarthmore, "...to run System 7.0, you MUST have 2 megs AND a hard >disk...period...end of story!!! There are NO plans to support floppy based >systems!!!!" What does this mean? Will Apple stop building Macs with floppy >drives? Is this for real, anyway? WHAT'S GOING ON? At a recent user group meeting, and Apple rep presenting info on System 7.0. Yes, it does need 2 MEGS.. period.. end of story. However, he said that it *should* be possible to boot using a series of floppies, but I think even working with system 6 on floppies is sort of like driving the Indy in a Yugo. Apparently, Apple will be shipping only 2 meg Macs soon (according to him, not from any inner divinity.) Does anyone know the future of floppies? [P.S.] I am not at all affiliated w/Apple & I could be all wrong! /--------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Joel Burton | "This sonic transducer, it is, | | Internet: burton@umbc5.umbc.edu | I suppose, some kind of | | * Elmo Loves You! * | audio-vibratory physimolecular |
jeff@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Jeff White) (04/10/90)
In article <2XDH5TV@xavier.swarthmore.edu> irilyth@cs.swarthmore.edu (Josh Smith) writes: > > According to a recent AppleLink mailing recently received by our Campus Rep >here at Swarthmore, "...to run System 7.0, you MUST have 2 megs AND a hard >disk...period...end of story!!! There are NO plans to support floppy based >systems!!!!" What does this mean? Will Apple stop building Macs with floppy >drives? Is this for real, anyway? WHAT'S GOING ON? With all the new features that 7.0 is supposed to include, it never seemed realistic that floppy-only use would be supported. Hell, just getting 6.0.x running a floppy based system now is difficult enough. My guess is that at least for the short term (1-??? years), both Systems 6.0.x and 7.0 will be supported, much in the same way that IBM/Microsoft supports both DOS (3.3/4.0) and OS/2. The more important thing that you really need to be concerned about is not what you need to run the System, but what you need to run your applications. I'm sure there will be new or rewritten applications that take advantage of the 7.0 features, but if you have applications that work fine for you now, you can just stick with them. I'm sure there are a couple of people our there still using the original RAM based version of MacWrite on a 128k Mac, which suits them fine for their particular usage. Jeff White jeff@eniac.seas.upenn.edu
harlan@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Pete Harlan) (04/10/90)
If, as has been suggested, you wouldn't be able to run system 7.0 without a hard disk, then there would be no way to FORMAT your hard disk when it was installed unformatted, there would be no way to boot from a floppy when your hard disk went ou;t [sic -- damn apple keyboard] to lunch, etc. Granted that system 7.0 might not be very friendly on a floppy-only system, but there is NO WAY anyone is going to make a computer system that relies on a working hard disk to run. IMHO, of course -- I am not an apple employee, nor have I seen 7.0. This posting is purely optimism. Pete Harlan harlan@silver.ucs.indiana.edu
ifan572@walt.cc.utexas.edu (Allen Wessels) (04/10/90)
In article <41294@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> harlan@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Pete Harlan) writes: >If, as has been suggested, you wouldn't be able to run system 7.0 >without a hard disk, then there would be no way to FORMAT your hard >disk when it was installed unformatted, there would be no way to boot >from a floppy when your hard disk went ou;t [sic -- damn apple >keyboard] to lunch, etc. The hard disk manufacturer will need to provide a system 6.0x disk with the formatting software on it. (BTW, I've never unpacked a drive that shipped unformatted. I'm sure some do, but I'd think that very rare.) Unless 7.0 were somehow to use a different disk format, there's no reason why you couldn't boot from a System 6.0 disk. People are only saying that you can't run a full System 7.0 OS from disk. > >Granted that system 7.0 might not be very friendly on a floppy-only >system, but there is NO WAY anyone is going to make a computer system >that relies on a working hard disk to run. > I assume you mean a home computer. System 7.0 will not somehow invalidate System 6.0.
eb1z+@andrew.cmu.edu (Edward Joseph Bennett) (04/10/90)
I was under the impression that any current Macs would need 2 megs of RAM but much of the system would be put into the ROM of new macs so they could be run with 1 meg. Any info on this? Ed
christbj@ifi.uio.no (Christian Bj|rnerud) (04/10/90)
In article <2XDH5TV@xavier.swarthmore.edu>, irilyth@cs.swarthmore.edu (Josh Smith) writes: |> |> According to a recent AppleLink mailing recently received by our Campus Rep |> here at Swarthmore, "...to run System 7.0, you MUST have 2 megs AND a hard |> disk...period...end of story!!! There are NO plans to support floppy based |> systems!!!!" What does this mean? Will Apple stop building Macs with floppy |> drives? Is this for real, anyway? WHAT'S GOING ON? |> After what is written in about 7.0 and support I understand that Apple will support both system 6.0.x and sustem 7.0 ! Stop worrying, they won't let any old MAC users down! (I hope...) -Christian- Email : christbj@ifi.uio.no
wln@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (William L Nussbaum) (04/11/90)
In 41294@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu, from Pete Harlan: > If, as has been suggested, you wouldn't be able to run system 7.0 > without a hard disk, then there would be no way to FORMAT your hard > disk when it was installed unformatted, there would be no way to boot > from a floppy when your hard disk went ou;t [sic -- damn apple > keyboard] to lunch, etc. I expect that it's likely Apple will be supplying Sys6 & Sys7 w/ new computers (is this what's going to happen?), one could resort to Sys6 disks for such duties... Whatever. -- Lee Nussbaum | William _Lee_ Nussbaum, Jr. | >> InterNet: wln@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu | >> CompuServe: 72401.3554 (@compuserve.com) | >> AmericaOnline: LeeN (if I could get CU's Rolm to work with it, or | it to work with CU's Rolm) | >> Gateway Addresses: [AppleLink: wln@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu@dasnet#] | >> Telephone: 212 853 6885 (thru May90) | >> Residents of the earth should be eccentric.
d88-sli@nada.kth.se (Stefan Lindmark) (04/11/90)
In article <2XDH5TV@xavier.swarthmore.edu>, irilyth@cs.swarthmore.edu (Josh Smith) writes: > > According to a recent AppleLink mailing recently received by our Campus Rep > here at Swarthmore, "...to run System 7.0, you MUST have 2 megs AND a hard > disk...period...end of story!!! There are NO plans to support floppy based > systems!!!!" What does this mean? Will Apple stop building Macs with floppy > drives? Is this for real, anyway? WHAT'S GOING ON? Floppy drives may still be useful for transferring data between Mac's. But how do you think that System 7.0 is going to get squeezed into one single 800K-disk and still do some work? In most computer systems secondary memory (ie HD's), are more than ten times the size of the RAM. If you NEED 2 MB RAM to run the system software, what is the purpose of having secondary media that will store a third of that size? System 7.0 has never been announced as the poor mans operating system. Those who need the power of System 7.0 will also have the money to buy a hard disk. Especially when a hard disk is as cheap as hard disks are now. I could have understood if you lived in Sweden (as I do), where prices are outrageous, but in US, I would definitely not have been satisfied with the data closet (45MB) that is currently stuck in my SE/30. I mean, you still don't *have* to upgrade your system. But if you want a fancier system, try to accept that you *may* need some fancy hardware, too. -- Stefan Lindmark Email: d88-sli@nada.kth.se Snail-mail: Don't even bother... Unsubscribed to newsgroup eunet.jokes.