Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2001 00:45:03 +1000 From: "Doug Young" <dougy@gargoyle.apana.org.au> To: <bastill@sa.apana.org.au>, <freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: About Unix Message-ID: <002301c0a8a7$882b0760$0200a8c0@apana.org.au> References: <OFA420CC63.6AEAEDB6-ON87256A08.006994B1@smed.com> <20010308131205.A1029@okb.lv> <024301c0a7de$930db020$847e03cb@apana.org.au> <01030915094403.26742@PhD_1.testname.com.au>
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> So your organisation didn't have the money for a small UPS which had
> just enough energy on power failure on to run a script to power down
> gracefully, for each site?
Well now .... its a question of getting approval from at least the local (&
often the national )
committees, and given a few recent events the guy with the checkbook is
being fairly
careful :) I've been pushing for a UPS big enough to run at least the more
important
machines but haven't convinced enough of the other local committee people as
yet.
The present setup dates back well before my time anyway.
Would have been MOST helpful, whatever the OS. Especially in Queensland.
> I guess the cheap-but-risky "she'll be right" system wasn't YOUR
recommendation!
I know the value of the things .... where I live in the southern suburbs of
Brisbane we get short duration 'brownouts" virtually every day. Getting a
nice big 1200va UPS to run my FreeBSD gateway / LAN / 2 modems / etc cut my
Tel$tra phone account back quite substantially. For the benefit of those who
get "free" local calls ... Australians generally pay between 15c & 20c for
every local call, so the cost of running a permanent dialup modem link can
be considerable if you have poor phone lines & unreliable power supply (like
80% of people here)
>
> >The linux systems typically failed to
> > re-start automatically whereas FreeBSD ones do.
> >{[..] I'm not
> > aware of one instance of one of our FreeBSD systems needing re-install
> > after a power failure.
>
> To me this says super things about FreeBSD robustness, rather than bad
> things about any other OS. Being a 'belt and braces' man myself, I'd
> not want to run remotes without UPS, regardless.
As I recall from a visit to the Apana SA POP last year, the building has its
own backup
power, so your systems may rely on that. I dunno that the power supply in SA
could be
anywhere near as unreliable as it is here ... almost getting to the stage
where businesses
need their own generator. Whatever, theres no question that a UPS is
a_very_good_idea
>
> So far as the migration from Linux is concerned, I think it is a
> logical progression for the increasing number who are coming to Linux
> as a refuge from Windows. Like me. I wouldn't have known about
> FreeBSD if it hadn't been for Linux.
>
> I completely agree about the execrable Linux documentation. The docs
> for FreeBSD are VERY good. (Pedantic FreeBSD in particular <g>).
The reasons I wrote that were partly to stave off questions from local
newbies
who had the same problems I'd experienced with documentation generally, and
partly so I'd have readily accessible notes to refer to myself. Judging from
the
number of other "user-friendly" sites that exist now I'm not the only one
who
believes there is a need for something more explicit than the "official"
offerings.
Sites like freebsddiary.org / bsdvault.net / mostgraveconcern.com & the one
I
can't recall by resident lurker Rick Hammell are all invaluable resources.
>
> --
> Regards,
> Brian
>
> ********************************************************
> Dr Brian Astill Visiting Research Fellow
> Flinders University Institute of International Education
> Bus 8201 3480 FAX 8449 9199
> bastill@sa.apana.org.au
> ********************************************************
>
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