🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1993Jan3.052930.27869@wam.umd.edu> rsrodger@wam.umd.edu (Yamanari)  
writes:
> 	We all spend time with strange people for New Years..
>  
> 	So I'm trying to explain to a friend who has just bought a 
> 	new Gateway system (dx2-66, lb ATI ultra @ 1024x768, running
> '	OS/2) what a workstation is (he asked, because I was discussing
> 	the schools computer lab and used the word), and, well.. 
>  
> 	Can anyone give me a definition of workstation, other than 
> 	cost, that seperates it from modern high-end PC systems (in his
> 	case, one that cost no more than $3500).  
> 
> 	At first I was tempted to talk about UNIX or RISC, but these
> 	were less than satisfactory (UNIX because he could be running
> 	UNIX, and RISC sounds deficient--those old M68k based Suns are
> 	still workstations...and then there's the 386i...)..
>  
> 	Anyone?  Come to think of it, it's pretty muddled to me, too.

The high lowest common denominator. Workstation software relies
on stuff like TCP/IP suppport, the UNIX tool set, multiuser/multitasking
OS, high resolution screens, mouse, etc. The lowest common denominator
for a PC is still an 8088 with MDA and 512K (realistically). 
You won't find software that's written for and
really takes advantage of the resources of high-end PCs, even if that's
what the vendors want to make you think. E.g. M$-Windoze's incredibly
clumsy mouseless mode (since they can't rely on everyone having a mouse)
that shines through the mouseful mode, clumsifying the latter, too.
(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.
A decent workstation has IMHO *at least* the following items of 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.)

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

Looks good on the outside, but -
	intel inside