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From: mlandau@bbn.com (Matt Landau)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Diskless window servers [Formerly Re: Open question on NFS, efficiency, etc.]
Message-ID: <7785@slate.BBN.COM>
Date: Mon, 10-Aug-87 22:59:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: slate.7785
Posted: Mon Aug 10 22:59:25 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 12-Aug-87 01:51:12 EDT
References: <8730@brl-adm.ARPA> <7779@slate.BBN.COM> <2473@ames.arpa>
Reply-To: mlandau@bbn.com (Matt Landau)
Followup-To: comp.windows.misc
Organization: BBN Laboratories Incorporated, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 23

[I'm moving this thread of the discussion to comp.windows.misc, since
 that's where this is heading...]

In comp.unix.wizards (<2473@ames.arpa>), lamaster@ames.UUCP (Hugh LaMaster) 
writes:
>
>Another approach to the diskless workstation (which I currently attribute to
>an employee of DEC) is to view it as a window server:  You have enough
>horsepower in your diskless machine to run windowing, and then actually run
>your programs on other servers of various kinds, including the Sun servers
>mentioned, but maybe also a graphics server or a Cray.  

For some reason, I find the idea of viewing a Sun 3/75 with more than
twice the raw horsepower of a VAX 11/780 as a simple window server 
amusing.  On the other hand, I agree that low-cost window servers are
going to be a big item in the future, serving basically the same purpose
as ASCII terminals do now.  However, that's going to require lower cost
boxes and a network distributed window system that works -- both X and
NeWS are in their infancy, and neither is yet quite ready to challange
the world :-)
-- 
 Matt Landau			A rock feels no pain...
 mlandau@bbn.com		    ...and an island never cries.