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- Newsgroups: comp.arch
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- From: vhs@rhein-main.de (Volker Herminghaus-Shirai)
- Subject: Re: Def of a workstation (a lark)
- Message-ID: <1993Jan6.081214.8922@qb.rhein-main.de>
- Sender: vhs@qb.rhein-main.de (Volker Herminghaus-Shirai)
- Reply-To: vhs@rhein-main.de
- References: <1993Jan5.152453.13303@crd.ge.com>
- Date: Wed, 6 Jan 93 08:12:14 GMT
- Lines: 94
-
- In article <1993Jan5.152453.13303@crd.ge.com> davidsen@ariel.crd.GE.COM
- (william E Davidsen) writes:
- > In article <1993Jan3.235327.13718@qb.rhein-main.de>, vhs@rhein-main.de
- (Volker Herminghaus-Shirai) writes:
- >
- > | (Additional menu items for move, resize, etc that are useless if you have
- > | a mouse since no one in his sane mind would use them then.)
- > | The video-mode desaster is another example. I have yet to see a workstation
- > | that keeps switching between "text-mode" and a horrendous amount of
- > | "graphics-modes" (except for the RS6000, which does text/graphics mode.
- Sigh.
- >
- > I have yet to see a non-accelerated workstation which did scrolling of
- > text windows as fast as a dedicated text mode. Since you are moving less
- > data with a hardware supported text mode it will always be faster,
- > unless you deliberately cripple the hardware to make a point.
- >
- > I prefer to do long interractive editing (like writing articles and
- > books) on a text screen because of this. It definitely has uses.
-
- Well, scrolling is fast enough on most current graphical workstations
- that the eye sometimes has difficulty to follow. I wouldn't need faster
- scrolling. If I want to look through the text or go somewhere in it,
- I page up and down rather than scroll or use the appropriate editor or
- GUI jump commands, respectively. The usability of a scrollbar for me is
- higher than the advantage of being able to make my text appear like a
- passing train from 10cm distance ;-)
-
- > | A decent workstation has IMHO *at least* the following items which the
- > | software can and does take advantage of:
- > | a high-resolution screen
- > | a pointing device
- > | an ethernet connection (or token ring if your management was bribed ;-)
- > | a UN*X operating system with TCP/IP support and a C compiler
- > | a boot prom that allows for interactive diagnosis etc.
- > | a decent amount of RAM and hard disk space
- > | a tape drive for backups and data exchange as opposed to floppy disk
- > | other items I may have forgotten (it's already tomorrow...;-)
- > |
- > | Software writers are usually driven to write for the lowest reasonable
- > | common denominator, so if any of the above items don't exist in the base
- > | configuration of a workstation line, forget at least 50% of their
- usefulness
- > | if you have them. (E.g. >50 AIX or SCO UNIX installation disks vs. one
- tape.
- > | Newer releases may give you one or two floppies and a tape, but still no
- > | delivery on CD-ROM, as far as I see. Also no installing via ethernet, since
- > | not everybody has it, etc.)
- >
- > Your "far as I can see" should get glasses. SCO has been shipping on
- > CD for years, and Dell has been supporting network install for several
- > years, too. For ease of install I would rate Dell first, then Sun and
- > SCO tied, and HP-UX down a good bit from that.
-
- I may not be up to date. So you can install SCO on CD-ROM *or* you can
- install Dell UNIX from the network. Can you also get Dell UNIX on CD-ROM
- and install SCO from the network?
- If not, it's just what I said: the lowest common denominator is too low.
- For a workstation it would be considered ugly not to be able to get the OS
- on CD-ROM *and* install via network. For a PC, it's an Ooh and an Aah
- if the vendor supports either of the two. This is not to batter PCs
- (though I love to :-), it's just that I have experienced the difference
- between PCs and WSs in such a way that on the PC, even if you have all
- the high-end features you have to at least struggle to get the software
- to support it. On workstations, no hassle because it's LCD.
-
- > Sun beats SCO for ease of network setup, but that's because you can't
- > offer choices without having either menus or prompts. Installing a smart
- > net card on a Sun, like 4/670 for instance, a small server, is more
- > complex than adding a net card to SCO.
-
- "Small" server is sort of debatable...
- We are not talking servers here but workstations vs. PCs. Try adding a
- second network card to a PC. Good luck with the interrupts and IO addresses
- (Yes, I know there are *some* PCs where it works even if you have a SCSI
- controlle, additional serial ports and sound card installed. In the PC world
- there is always some hardware that, in combination with some software, will
- probably do approximately what you want. It's just that in many cases this
- isn't the hardware you happen to own.)
-
- > I can remember installing V7 on a PDP-11, and it startet with toggling
- > the boot so the paper tape could be read to boot the magnetic media...
- > we have made progress in the last few decades.
-
- I can remember booting a 486/66 UN*X PC and it started with trying
- to read from the floppy drive. Not *that* much of a progress if you ask me.
-
- :-)
-
- --
- Volker Herminghaus-Shirai (vhs@qb.rhein-main.de), NeXTmail welcome
-
- Looks good on the outside, but -
- intel inside
-