Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!iuvax!uceng!dmocsny From: dmocsny@uceng.UC.EDU (daniel mocsny) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: X-terms v. PCs v. Workstations Summary: Centralized efficiency vs. individual control Message-ID: <2992@uceng.UC.EDU> Date: 30 Nov 89 07:17:55 GMT References: <1989Nov28.125728.6774@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> <40009@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV> Organization: Univ. of Cincinnati, College of Engg. Lines: 40 A psychologist friend once told me that the main factor in a person's perception of stress level is the degree to which that person feels out of control of a situation. Epidemiological evidence also shows that people who are successful and wield a lot of power over the people around them are on average happier, longer-lived, and less susceptible to stress-related disease. Having to appeal to a bureaucrat to obtain resources you need to accomplish work on a daily basis is degrading and stressful. This is perhaps doubly true for many people of technical bent, who are often less enthusiastic about playing the socio-political games necessary for establishing power relationships with other people. People with a job to do and a distaste for politics will be willing to pay an extra premium to free themselves from having to beg every day. Consider the analogies between transportation and computation technologies. In large cities individuals pay a high premium to own and operate individual automobiles. Parking is a nightmare, traffic congestion is a disaster, the hardware is idle most of the time and chewing up scarce space resources. Mass transit, on the other hand, moves 5-30 times as many people per lane of right-of-way per hour, does not require parking, gets much fuller use of the hardware, and (when well-run) offers convenience unmatched by the personal automobile (the user doesn't have to maintain anything, conflict with the law, fight traffic, look for a parking space, worry about theft, etc.). Mass transit systems are also 5-10 times safer than private automobiles, even when they run on exactly the same infrastructure. But how many people prefer to drive an automobile instead of taking mass transit? Why? The same principle is at work here as in the decline of centralized computing. I still ride my bikes and take the occasional bus, and live without a car, but the instant I got access to my first lousy MS-DOS PC I never again did anything on the University Mainframe unless I had absolutely no alternative. I'm sure that some corporations have excellent MIS outfits, but once people get a taste of being in control, they don't give up that feeling readily. Dan Mocsny dmocsny@uceng.uc.edu Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com