MacOS 9 server with 3 years uptime

[Jesper]

I visited a Danish company yesterday, there I saw something very
interesting: An iMac 500 MHz running MacOS 9.1 used as an local
fileserver. I have for 3 years without being booted. No maintainance, no
nothing. I would love to see a Windows PC do that!

--
The trouble with the global village are all the
global village idiots. - Paul Ginsparg.

[Steven Fisher]

In article <1g0sajg.13lpu9g1fapyedN%none@inobody.invalid>,
[email]none@inobody.inva[/email]lid (Jesper) wrote:

> I visited a Danish company yesterday, there I saw something very
> interesting: An iMac 500 MHz running MacOS 9.1 used as an local
> fileserver. I have for 3 years without being booted. No maintainance, no
> nothing. I would love to see a Windows PC do that!

I wouldn't think it terribly hard as long as the server was local only.
A great many of the restarts required for servers are a result of
security updates.

But that's not meant to belittle the accomplishment. :)

[Jesper]

James Meiss <jdm@NOSPAM.invalid> wrote:

> In article <sdfisher-083256.17301904092003@shawnews.cq.shawcable.net>,
> Steven Fisher <sdfisher@spamcop.net> wrote:
>

> > In article <1g0sajg.13lpu9g1fapyedN%none@inobody.invalid>,
> > [email]none@inobody.inva[/email]lid (Jesper) wrote:
> >

> > > I visited a Danish company yesterday, there I saw something very
> > > interesting: An iMac 500 MHz running MacOS 9.1 used as an local
> > > fileserver. I have for 3 years without being booted. No maintainance, no
> > > nothing. I would love to see a Windows PC do that!

> >
> > I wouldn't think it terribly hard as long as the server was local only.
> > A great many of the restarts required for servers are a result of
> > security updates.
> >
> > But that's not meant to belittle the accomplishment. :)

What update? MacOS 9 is inherently safe, no security updates has ever
been released for that system, it is a virtually bulletproof system, it
has never been rooted though remote holes.

>
> I can't count on the power company giving me steady power for more than
> a few months....Guess that says something for the reliability of Danish
> power too.

Yes, powersupply is very stabil and the iMac is not on a UPS, and in
your case a UPS would do the job.


--
The trouble with the global village are all the
global village idiots. - Paul Ginsparg.

[Steven Fisher]

In article <1g0u5ky.1mhp1r7ccrqtrN%none@inobody.invalid>,
[email]none@inobody.inva[/email]lid (Jesper) wrote:

> What update? MacOS 9 is inherently safe, no security updates has ever
> been released for that system, it is a virtually bulletproof system, it
> has never been rooted though remote holes.

The core? Well, sure -- that's true in general of most OSes. It's only
when you start installing server services that it becomes potentially
unsafe.

Earlier versions of Mac OS had a security issues with Personal Web
Sharing, which was really the only standard protocol included with it.
This was eventually fixed, but I don't believe it was ever patched out
in a "security update." Lasso also had issues.

As for the client side, both Internet Explorer and Netscape for Mac OS 9
have had security issues at one point or another. Java could crash your
whole computer.

If you found a particular combination of OS and server that ran for
three years without problems, great! But you could do the same thing on
any other OS. Just pick *carefully.* And it helps if the server services
are simple (i.e. don't do much, so can't go wrong in very many place).

"Virtually bulletproof" translates to "breakable by anyone who knows
exactly where to put the bullet."

(And for the record, I'm a long time Mac user. I first touched a Mac in
1984, and first started regularily using one a couple years later. I'm
also greatly prefer the Mac. However, realism never hurt anyone.)