From: vhs@rhein-main.de (Volker Herminghaus-Shirai)
Subject: Re: Def  of a workstation (a lark)
Reply-To: vhs@rhein-main.de
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 93 08:12:14 GMT

In article <1993Jan5.152453.13303@crd.ge.com> davidsen@ariel.crd.GE.COM  
(william E Davidsen) writes:
> In article <1993Jan3.235327.13718@qb.rhein-main.de>, vhs@rhein-main.de  
(Volker Herminghaus-Shirai) writes:
> 
> | (Additional menu items for move, resize, etc that are useless if you have
> | a mouse since no one in his sane mind would use them then.)
> | The video-mode desaster is another example. I have yet to see a workstation
> | that keeps switching between "text-mode" and a horrendous amount of
> | "graphics-modes" (except for the RS6000, which does text/graphics mode.  
Sigh.
> 
>   I have yet to see a non-accelerated workstation which did scrolling of
> text windows as fast as a dedicated text mode. Since you are moving less
> data with a hardware supported text mode it will always be faster,
> unless you deliberately cripple the hardware to make a point.
> 
>   I prefer to do long interractive editing (like writing articles and
> books) on a text screen because of this. It definitely has uses.

Well, scrolling is fast enough on most current graphical workstations
that the eye sometimes has difficulty to follow. I wouldn't need faster
scrolling. If I want to look through the text or go somewhere in it,
I page up and down rather than scroll or use the appropriate editor or
GUI jump commands, respectively. The usability of a scrollbar for me is
higher than the advantage of being able to make my text appear like a
passing train from 10cm distance ;-)

> | A decent workstation has IMHO *at least* the following items which the
> | software can and does take advantage of:
> | 	a high-resolution screen
> | 	a pointing device
> | 	an ethernet connection (or token ring if your management was bribed ;-)
> | 	a UN*X operating system with TCP/IP support and a C compiler
> | 	a boot prom that allows for interactive diagnosis etc.
> | 	a decent amount of RAM and hard disk space
> | 	a tape drive for backups and data exchange as opposed to floppy disk
> | 	other items I may have forgotten (it's already tomorrow...;-)
> | 
> | Software writers are usually driven to write for the lowest reasonable
> | common denominator, so if any of the above items don't exist in the base
> | configuration of a workstation line, forget at least 50% of their  
usefulness
> | if you have them. (E.g. >50 AIX or SCO UNIX installation disks vs. one  
tape.
> | Newer releases may give you one or two floppies and a tape, but still no
> | delivery on CD-ROM, as far as I see. Also no installing via ethernet, since
> | not everybody has it, etc.)
> 
>   Your "far as I can see" should get glasses. SCO has been shipping on
> CD for years, and Dell has been supporting network install for several
> years, too. For ease of install I would rate Dell first, then Sun and
> SCO tied, and HP-UX down a good bit from that.

I may not be up to date. So you can install SCO on CD-ROM *or* you can
install Dell UNIX from the network. Can you also get Dell UNIX on CD-ROM
and install SCO from the network?
If not, it's just what I said: the lowest common denominator is too low.
For a workstation it would be considered ugly not to be able to get the OS
on CD-ROM *and* install via network. For a PC, it's an Ooh and an Aah
if the vendor supports either of the two. This is not to batter PCs
(though I love to :-), it's just that I have experienced the difference
between PCs and WSs in such a way that on the PC, even if you have all
the high-end features you have to at least struggle to get the software
to support it. On workstations, no hassle because it's LCD.

>   Sun beats SCO for ease of network setup, but that's because you can't
> offer choices without having either menus or prompts. Installing a smart
> net card on a Sun, like 4/670 for instance, a small server, is more
> complex than adding a net card to SCO.

"Small" server is sort of debatable...
We are not talking servers here but workstations vs. PCs. Try adding a
second network card to a PC. Good luck with the interrupts and IO addresses
(Yes, I know there are *some* PCs where it works even if you have a SCSI
controlle, additional serial ports and sound card installed. In the PC world
there is always some hardware that, in combination with some software, will
probably do approximately what you want. It's just that in many cases this
isn't the hardware you happen to own.)

>   I can remember installing V7 on a PDP-11, and it startet with toggling
> the boot so the paper tape could be read to boot the magnetic media...
> we have made progress in the last few decades.

I can remember booting a 486/66 UN*X PC and it started with trying
to read from the floppy drive. Not *that* much of a progress if you ask me.

:-)

--
Volker Herminghaus-Shirai (vhs@qb.rhein-main.de), NeXTmail welcome

Looks good on the outside, but -
	intel inside
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