Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mit-eddie!bu-cs!xylogics!world!bzs
From: bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: X-terms v. PCs v. Workstations
Message-ID: <1989Nov25.000120.18261@world.std.com>
Date: 25 Nov 89 00:01:20 GMT
References: <1128@m3.mfci.UUCP> <1989Nov22.175128.24910@ico.isc.com> <3893@scolex.sco.COM> <39361@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV> <17305@netnews.upenn.edu>
Distribution: usa
Organization: The World @ Software Tool & Die
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In-Reply-To: iyengar@grad1.cis.upenn.edu's message of 24 Nov 89 07:51:16 GMT


I love when technically-oriented people start arguing about the
relative merits of X-terms, PC's, workstations and centralized
facilities.

The technology involved is necessary, but hardly sufficient. Once the
various technologies get "good enough" (a term technical people often
find hard to grasp since they usually define "good enough" as "that
which I want to buy next") the issues broaden.

The most important issues quickly become politics and administration.
Who tells me what I can do with my system, who administers it?

If people are resisting going to X-terms rather than PCs/workstations
even tho one keeps showing them that technically the former as as good
or better it might be because they are sick of the rules of the
centralized computer. For example, 80MB disks are cheap-o things these
days, how many of you folks who run time-sharing shudder at the
thought of users who would use 80MB on your central system? Just about
all of you. Yet in the PC world that much disk space is peanuts. How
many of your systems limits users to, say, 1MB or so of disk space?
That's not even one whole 3 1/2" floppy.

Ok, a lot of that 80MB ends up "wasted" because of duplication of
software and libraries. So what, replace it in the argument with 40MB
user space on your system, or a 200MB disk drive and 100+MB user
space, still cheap-o. You can run, but you can't hide.

And who's going to back it up and all that? Oh, let us *do* wring our
hands and act o-so-concerned for *them*. It's a new experience!

Well, in a lot of cases, who cares. Escaping out from under
centralized tyranny is more important (at the moment of decision) than
who's going to make the trains run on time once you're free. Put your
important data files to floppies or cartridge tapes (it's easy, don't
need $100K worth of operators to do that) and pray for the best.

That's why so many centralized facilities are jumping at becoming
network administrators and proselytes of X-terminals.

Re-centralization of authority, yum-yum.

Not that there's anything wrong with X-terminals, I like them, but
let's be honest about motives: How ya gonna keep them all down on the
farm once they've been to Paree'?

Integrated, multi-level computer architectures are the ultimate
answer, not hidden agendas.
-- 
        -Barry Shein

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