AlanBarber.Org
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
My Dream Home Office
After Yesterdays post about how I wanted a Mac to do cross-platform development work on I thought it might be fun to write about what my dream home office, aka The Laboratory, would be like.
Before I begin have to admit I’m a Microsoft fan. I know it’s uncool to like Microsoft and the real “hackers” are all about Linux. However, I do like Microsoft. They don’t always do the right thing and can be a bit of a brute sometimes but they are a business after all. They have to try to stay on top of a rather large and complex market. That’s not to say I’m some anti-opensource or anti-unix person. I’m all for opensource software and in fact if you take the time to look you’ll see this site is running on Linux!
First, lets get down to the nitty gritty of the core of “The Laboratory.”
To start with I would run a pure gigabit network. There would be no 10/100 or other such slow backbones in my home! I would need the raw speed capable only from a gigabit network. Now unfortunately I could never get away with a pure wired gigabit network. I would have to include some wireless capabilities. I would use only 802.11g networking equipment. First off the speed increase would be welcomed and secondly the added security that 802.11g offers over 802.11b.
There would be a router setup to provide network access from DSL, Cable, or whatever else I may use.
The main hardware would consist of 3 systems.
Server 1(core services): Windows 2003 Server. Basically it would handle all the core needs like Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, SMTP, POP3, IMAP, file storage, backup services, etc.
Server 2(windows web test server): Windows 2003 Server. This would be the Windows web test server. It would run IIS and SQL Server.
Server 3(Unix web test server): FreeBSD 4.10. This would be the unix web test server. It would run your basic Apache, MySQL, PostgreSQL, PHP, Perl, Python servers and software.
All three systems would be built identically. I would start with dual top of the line Xeon processors then load them with 4 gigabytes of ram. The core services would be the only one a bit different. Because it plays the role as a file server I would build a very large Raid-5 array in the terabyte+ size range.
There would be four basic workstation/desktop systems on the network.
System 1(general usage): This would be sort of a general usage system to cover basic office and web needs. Things like word processing, spreadsheets, email, browsing, chat, IM, etc. As a result this would be a very small low powered system. I would build it around the Via Epia platform and run Windows XP Pro.
System 2(main development): This would be the main system for doing development work from software coding to website work. It would be a windows XP Pro system. It’d be very similar to the servers with dual Xeons and 4 gigs of ram. The big plus would be that this system would have multiple monitors. At least two but maybe as many as three.
System 3(secondary development): This is where the Mac would show up. I’d get a nice dual G5 Mac OS X system for doing cross-platform development work.
System 4(gaming): This would be the powerhouse in the lab. Windows XP Pro again. Top of the line Pentium 4 cpu, 4 gigs of ram, fastest video card, etc.
Beyond this there would end up several more systems as time went on I’m sure. Test boxes I’d build to try out new OSes or do test installs of software.
Besides that there would be atleast one tablet PC. I really like the idea behind tablet PCs and would want one with full wireless roaming access. I could sit down anywhere in my lab or house for that matter and remotely access my systems or just goof off and surf the web.
So this is just some things I’ve always dreamed about. In reality most of the systems are pretty overpowered for my needs but hey I can dream!
Oh yea it should go without saying that this would all be rack mounted equipment… 
With stacks of rack mounted UPSes to keep it all running 24/7 even if the power goes off!
on 06/30/2004 at 04:07 PM
I forgot about these. YOu can probably get away with just 2 of the big one of these monitors and be at least okay for amount of screen space on your dev machine. 
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/70906/wo/E77wdzKmQqIM3O6bl7f1u6QuL1M/0.0.7.1.0.6.21.1.2.1.3.0.0.1.0
That sounds like a solid setup. You might as well throw in a SQL server the same as the other machines and throw it all in to a rack.
Don’t forget a couple of media center PCs for bedroom and living room and a kitchen computer.
Then you will be stylin’.