Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!watmath!att!dptg!rutgers!usc!bbn!spdcc!dyer
From: dyer@spdcc.COM (Steve Dyer)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.i386
Subject: Re: How to choose a new 386 UNIX PC...
Message-ID: <4635@ursa-major.SPDCC.COM>
Date: 21 Sep 89 15:30:24 GMT
References: <645@visdc.UUCP> <16097@vail.ICO.ISC.COM> <648@visdc.UUCP>
Reply-To: dyer@ursa-major.spdcc.COM (Steve Dyer)
Organization: S.P. Dyer Computer Consulting, Cambridge MA
Lines: 25

In article <648@visdc.UUCP> jiii@visdc.UUCP (John E Van Deusen III) writes:
>I would like to
>suggest that you people at Interactive (or SCO or Bell/Intel) put
>together a stand-alone X terminal software package to run on low-end
>386s.  You have all the software, including drivers, sitting there; it's
>simply a matter of bundling it and putting it on the price list.  The
>package could easily sell for $500 a pop; since it would solve the
>problem of poor X server performance on 386 machines running UNIX, and
>there is nothing like it yet on the market.

First, X runs fine under AIX PS/2 using an 8514 display adapter and screen,
whether in monochrome (using the 19" mono screen whose model # I forget) or
in full color (the 8514 16" screen.)  It's quite snappy; I've never had to
stop and kvetch about poor performance on a 20mhz 386 PS/2 with 6 meg of memory.
I suspect that the problem is trying to use X on VGA displays on machines which
don't have enough memory to begin with.

IBM sells "X Windows for DOS" and Locus sells what I believe to be the
same product, PC/Xsight.  I have no experience with either of these products.
I believe you are limited to what you can do in 640K, but I could be wrong.
 
-- 
Steve Dyer
dyer@ursa-major.spdcc.com aka {ima,harvard,rayssd,linus,m2c}!spdcc!dyer
dyer@arktouros.mit.edu, dyer@hstbme.mit.edu