SCSI support for PC, file server?

SCSI support for PC, file server?

[Vijay]

On Mon, 7 Feb 1994, Gary Capell wrote:

> So does someone have a PC running as a file server somewhere?
> If it's possible to get a Plan9 cpu server, file server and terminal
> with three off-the-shelf PCs, it expands the possible market
> enormously, I think, which means more developers, which means more
> software, and support for more hardware, which expands the market,
> which...oh who am I kidding?

Ok, Forsyth has this exact setup up and running.  I can send out the
war story of his if you want.

Re: Market. I am not sure if going commercial with plan 9 will change
anything any more.  I wish it would, for then I would not have to
program or manage MS-Windows/X11 et al. when I go out to work.
The fact that I am paying for college by adminstrating large unix
boxen is annoying enough as it is.

Plan 9 is very nice but I am not sure if it can make it commercially.
MS-Windows: the stuff nightmares are made up out of.

vijay

SCSI support for PC, file server?

[Gary]

So does someone have a PC running as a file server somewhere?
If it's possible to get a Plan9 cpu server, file server and terminal
with three off-the-shelf PCs, it expands the possible market
enormously, I think, which means more developers, which means more
software, and support for more hardware, which expands the market,
which...oh who am I kidding?

I didn't even know anyone was working on such a thing.  I'd hate
for there to be duplication of effort, there's too much to do.
I think we're fast approaching the time we need an FTP site to
store our various hacks.  Also, perhaps people should post to
this list what s'ware they have written, and what they are in the
process of or planning on writing.  We can avoid duplication,
maybe even cooperate.

BTW, are there dangers or complications with sharing?  What
does a license restrict you from sharing with the world?
What if your code is mostly derived from Bell Labs source?
Is there a danger of diverging Plan 9 versions, a la Unix?
I think my ideal would be an ftp site of various drivers,
ports, and apps which would be treated as beta test, with
the working drivers and ports, and apps WORTH cluttering
up the name space/disk space, selected by Bell Labs and
added to the next distribution.

Thoughts?  And what are _you_ working on/thinking of working on?

BTW, I have a munged version of help(1) that lets you use
the view key and has some acme(1) features, i.e. click
button 3 on a filename to open, current directory state
associated with each window.  If anyone wants it, I'm
not sure what I'm allowed to do, but _I_ certainly don't
mind sharing :-).