From: moriarty@tc.fluke.COM (Jeff Meyer)
Subject: Re: Request for Experience Information on Windows X Servers
Reply-To: moriarty@tc.fluke.COM (Jeff Meyer)
Organization: The John Fluke Mfg. Co.  /a.k.a. The Gizmonics Institute/
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 20:29:34 GMT

Here's a quick repost of an article I sent out several months ago...

============================================================

Several months ago, I posted a note mentioning that a few of us at Fluke
were evaluating several X-terminal packages software packages for MS Windows
on a PC; and that I would write a brief summary of our results (and our
decision as to which package to pick) when we were finished.  We have made
our choice (Hummingbird's eXceed/W), and while it is still being tested, I
wanted to keep my promise and get the summary out.  Due to time constraints
on my part, I unfortunately must keep this *very* brief; but I will try to
stick to the pertinent information.

Before starting, I should point out that this evaluation was neither
exhaustive nor general in nature; we focussed on our own particular
application for a PC X-server package at Fluke.  In particular, we evaluated
with the following points in mind:

1)  We were aiming for the following environment: a PC with a fast 386 (and
    probably a 486) processor, running MS-Windows 3.1, and using a 16-bit
    Ethernet card (in this case, a Cabletron.)  We were not all that
    interested in seeing it run on a less powerful environment.  (Though we
    had generally satisfactory results with a couple of 8-bit Ethernet
    cards.) 

    Also, we were running it off Sparc workstations running X/11 Motif (not Sun
    OpenWindows.)  However, I have read on the net that, with a little work,
    eXceed/W will work fine on top of OpenWindows.

2)  We were only interested in seeing how it worked with one transport
    system: Sun's PC-NFS (and only with 4.0.)  We tested it for no other
    transports; all of the products tested support a large number.

3)  We had a "head-start" when choosing which products to test; an issue of
    "Open Systems Today" reviewed a number of these packages, and we picked the
    top two choices of this magazine to evaluate, and one other:
    Visionware's X-Vision and Hummingbird's eXceed/W, and X11/AT.
    [Issue: March 2nd, 1992.]

----

Given those starting points, we tested the packages.  (I worked on eXceed/W,
while others worked on all three; thus, I cannot personally
comment on X-Vision's performance.  I observed X11/AT once, briefly, and it
ran pig slow.)  The concensus with X11/AT, after testing, was that it did
not work reliably with PC-NFS, and it did not faithfully reproduce X images
(e.g., pushbuttons on menus did not always appear.)

As to X-Vision and eXceed/W, we found glitches with both; the general
feeling was that performance-wise, the two were close (with X-Vision being,
perhaps, a tad faster, I understand); that feature-wise, eXceed/W had a
slight lead.  The choice was made to go with eXceed/W was mainly made on the
extremely good technical support (particularly the phone support) at
Hummingbird; everyone who talked to them was extremely impressed by how
knowledgable and helpful their people were.

Since then, this decision appears to be the right one.  The glitches have
been almost entirely worked out (the only one I know of know is so trivial I
refrain from mentioning it -- no doubt it will be fixed in a future
release); I should add that 90% of the glitches were finally tracked down to
the transport mechanism (PC-NFS), and not eXceed/W.  We are currently using
PC-NFS 4.0a, and all our transport-related problems (including those
occuring with PC-NFS alone) seem to have disappeared for the nonce.  I have
not had it crash, hang or have any problems whatever since 4.0a was
installed.

We have several HP X-Terminals running at Fluke, and running eXceed/W in
single-window mode with Motif as the window manager is identical (except for
performance and window dimensions.)  Performance is very acceptible for
standard X applications, FrameMaker, WingZ for X, etc.  I haven't tested it
with any CAD/CAM programs; I am assuming that anyone using those
applications would be using an X-Terminal (or better yet, a SparcStation) in
the first place.  Multi-window works works equally well (though I have not
tested this as rigorously myself.)

In short, I am extremely satisfied with eXceed/W, and would recommend it to
anyone, given the provisions mentioned above.

                        TOP TEN DEMANDS OF STRIKING TELEPHONE WORKERS:

                            #3: Authorization to say "Look it up yourself,
                                you lazy sack of krud." 
                                           -- Late Night with David Letterman
---
                                        Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
INTERNET:     moriarty@tc.fluke.COM
Manual UUCP:  {uunet, uw-beaver, sun, microsoft}!fluke!moriarty
CREDO:        You gotta be Cruel to be Kind...
                 **>> Keep circulating the tapes <<**


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