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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!harpo!ihnp4!zehntel!hplabs!hao!cires!nbires!opus!rcd
From: rcd@opus.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
Subject: Re: VAX 11/785
Message-ID: <335@opus.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 9-Apr-84 14:38:59 EST
Article-I.D.: opus.335
Posted: Mon Apr  9 14:38:59 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 11-Apr-84 05:24:43 EST
References: <406@bnl.UUCP> <3340@brl-vgr.ARPA>
Organization: NBI, Boulder
Lines: 29

<>
>...If you can acquire a second computer
>system, there are many more cost-effective ways to get about 50% of
>a VAX-11/780; for example, you could buy 30 Macintoshes and get 1500%
>of the power of a 780 (not the best alternative, but it is a remarkable
>contrast).

Yes, and if you acquire multiple machines to handle one computing load, you
get an added bonus - EDUCATION, as follows:

You can find out how networks work, and how they fail.  You can discover
that you have to balance your user load across machines, and that the load
will invariably change faster than you can adapt.  When you start to do
file backup, you'll discover that either you need tape drives on every
machine or you get to learn about file system backup across the network. 
And if users don't have most of the files they need for their work on
their home machine, the network overhead will eat you alive.  

(I think I want a statement of Grosch's law here???  My memory fails me.)

I'm not flaming about the idea of "a computer on every desktop" - I think
that's a good idea - but WATCH OUT.  If you've got lots of little jobs
going on, fine - but if you really have a community of people trying to
work on one large project, you may be going the wrong way.  (Using nine
little computers to do the job of one big one can be like trying to have
nine women produce a baby in one month.)
-- 
"A friend of the devil is a friend of mine."		Dick Dunn
{hao,ucbvax,allegra}!nbires!rcd				(303) 444-5710 x3086