Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!uunet!comp.vuw.ac.nz!actrix!templar!jbickers
From: jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz (John Bickers)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: IAC (was Re: Clipboard (was Re: The Amiga's Future))
Message-Id: <4332.tnews@templar.actrix.gen.nz>
Date: Wed, 11 Jun 1991 11:59:21 GMT
References: <1991Jun8.044840.1404@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> <1991Jun8.074935.781@neon.Stanford.EDU> <1991Jun8.084126.3287@news.iastate.edu> <1991Jun8.150550.21859@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> <1991Jun9.005806.18799@news.iastate.edu> <4264.tnews@templar.actrix.gen.nz> <43@ryptyde.UUCP>
Organization: TAP, NZAmigaUG.

Quoted from <43@ryptyde.UUCP> by dant@ryptyde.UUCP (Daniel Tracy):
> Responding to the following:

    By me, he says blushing with pride... :)

> "Isn't the meat and potatoes of networking access to files on other
>     machines?"

> That's SOME of it.

    The most important part of it in my opinion, though I do recognise
    that in an ideal environment more of the available resources should
    be sharable, such as process space, modems, etc.

    File/printer sharing LANs seem to be the real core of business
    networking (wherever I look at work, which is a bank running PS/2s
    and Novell, like most of our customers who have networks at all).

    I understand this might be a slightly skewed impression, as folks
    who outfit themselves with higher capability hardware and operating
    systems are capable of better, but they seem to be located either
    in research organisations or in computer companies.

    Of the applications which are making an impact in the networks I
    see, email is the only significant one designed for "groupware" sort
    of use.

> I guess this is the standard mentality of Amiga owners who think the extent of
> networking is to make accessing files across a network transparent to apps.

    No, no, this is the standard for PClones where I work. Tell me, is
    there a Mac equivalent of the AmigaUUCP package (which is free)?
    What is it like? Does it take over the machine?

> Ever heard of colaborative computing? Every tried it? There are no applications

    Yes I've heard of it. No I've nevery tried it (outside of using links
    on a Unix programming project once - oops, file system stuff, eh?).

> specifically for networking? There are several on the Mac! For instance, in
> a painting program, different users can be editing the same document and see

    Er, woop de doo. Why do you want several people messing with the
    same picture, or same Microsoft Word file, or whatever? Of the
    products that one sees outlined, the project management ones seem
    the most reasonable. And that's nothing to get excited about. Source
    code management has been available as a file system thing for years,
    I'd guess. Multiple people diddling with the same spreadsheet makes
    it harder for one of them to cook the figures, so it can't be that
    handy for management... :)

    Perhaps you don't understand what I mean by meat and potatoes. I
    mean the _bulk_. Sure there are extras and exceptions, but the bulk
    of a LAN's current usefulness in a business environment is, I contend,
    to share files (or things made to look like files, like printers).
--
*** John Bickers, TAP, NZAmigaUG.        jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz ***
***         "Endless variations, make it all seem new" - Devo.          ***