*BSD News Article 28555


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Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!pipex!news.gb.ec.ps.net!aledm
From: aledm@relay-europe.ps.net (Aled Morris)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.apps,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: DOOM for X
Date: 22 Mar 1994 11:56:07 GMT
Organization: Perot Systems Europe Ltd.
Lines: 31
Distribution: inet
Message-ID: <ALEDM.94Mar22115607@icarus.gb.ec.ps.net>
References: <2mb2bb$8m@u.cc.utah.edu> <2mh1ta$m21@usenet.mcs.kent.edu>
	<1994Mar21.144650.11760@taylor.wyvern.com> <hastyCn145r.E4t@netcom.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: icarus.gb.ec.ps.net
In-reply-to: hasty@netcom.com's message of Mon, 21 Mar 1994 19:15:23 GMT

In article <hastyCn145r.E4t@netcom.com> hasty@netcom.com (Amancio Hasty Jr) writes:

>>>If X terminals aren't cheaper than workstations, the motivation for using
>>>them becomes *very* weak.
>>
>>They ARE cheaper than "workstations", first in the hardware cost, but as
>>I just said above, companies typically will spend at least the cost of the
>>hardware in maintenance and support services for workstations (or clones)
>>each year.  Xterminals have a huge advantage in this area.
>
>Well you can have PC **color** workstations which are cheaper and faster
>than most or all X-terminals. For less than $3000 you can have 
>a PC workstation with a Sony 17" capable of 1600x1200. As for maintenance
>there are PC companies which provide on-site support (cheap).

Don't worry, Amancio, no one is going to take your PC away and give
you an X terminal onto some timeshare nightmare managed by morons to
which you don't have the root password.

HOWEVER, I wouldn't give PCs to the majority of my users on the
grounds that they wouldn't know the first thing about managing them
themselves, they wouldn't like the big boxes with loud fans and hard
disks, and I haven't got the time to go round explaining to them not
to boot DOS floppies.  I like the off-the-shelf simplicity of X
terminals, it lets me concentrate on the hard jobs.

Aled Morris
networks manager
--
aledm@relay-europe.ps.net  |  tel +44 81 476 2212
Perot Systems Europe Ltd.  |  fax +44 81 476 2419