🚀 go-pugleaf

| From: casey@lll-crg.llnl.gov (Casey Leedom)
| 
|   I'm looking for a good home work environment that won't cost a lot or
| require a lot of system maintenance.  It strikes me that, if feasible, an
| X terminal and a high speed modem would fill that bill perfectly.  Does
| anyone have any experience running any of the new X terminals over a
| 19,200 bps RS232 link?

  Well I got pretty uniform response.  Basically everyone recommended the
Graphon OptimaX 200.  This terminal and its implementation technique are
the obvious choices for running X over a serial line.

  Most X terminals run a server on the terminal itself.  This means
having to hassle with setting up a SLIP connection between the terminal
and a remote host, figuring out how to let novice users do this and get
routing to the new network, and having IP suck up a large chunk of your
bandwidth.  These are in addition to the normal problems an X terminal
suffers of needing an indeterminate amount of memory.

  The Graphon doesn't do this.  Instead you run the server (provided by
Graphon) on a remote host (solving the memory problem), and the server
communicates with the terminal via a special [proprietary] protocol that
eliminates all the performance and setup hassles of a SLIP connection.

  I've been told that the terminal is usable at 2400bps as long as you
stick with text and is very nice at 9600bps.  One person commented that
he could run an xclock with the `second dot' and still get excellent
performance at 9600bps.  Everyone said that bitmaps were slow, but that's
to be expected.

Some specifications:

Special introductory offer price: $1395
	Includes terminal, mouse, and server ($395 value).
Serial interface only
	I view this as an asset.  I'm not a big fan of the other X
	terminals because they cost too much.  With all the hardware and
	memory they have to toss in it's virtually impossible to make
	them low cost.  I think the Graphon's price speaks for itself.
	This is the first X terminal that I feel is justifiable.
600x800 pixel resolution
	Not big enough to hold two non-overlapping 80 column text
	windows.  One person said that a higher resolution 1000x1000
	version was due out later this year, but the salesman I talked to
	wasn't aware of this or whether an upgrade would be offered if
	such a product was forthcoming.
14 inch screen
	Tiny, but it matches the resolution quite nicely.
Built in VT100/220 mode
	It can be used as a normal terminal
Enhanced VT100/220 keyboard
	I hope this means I won't have to hunt for `<' and `>'.  Oh well,
	X lets me map shift `,', and `.' ...
Server is X11.3
	Currently, only Sun 3 and Sun 4 servers are offered.  When I
	talked to the salesman about source code because we have
	machine/OSs that they couldn't possibly have access to, he was
	fairly confident we could sign a non-disclosure, etc.  I don't
	know what the upgrade policy is for later revisions of the X
	server protocol.  One nice thing is that in all likelihood a
	server upgrade won't require any modifications to the terminal.

Thanks to the following for their input:

	Steve Hayman		<sahayman@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>
	Eugene Brooks		<brooks@maddog.llnl.gov>
	Howard P. Katseff	<hpk@cbnewsh.att.com>
	Bill Stapleton		<wls@csd4.milw.wisc.edu>
	Michael A. Justice	<boreas@bucsb.BU.EDU>
	Reid Simpson		<simpson@Xylogics.COM>
	John Robert LoVerso	<loverso@Xylogics.COM>
	David			<psitech!david@uunet.uu.net>
	Eduardo Krel		<ekrell@ulysses.att.com>
	Richard Frost		<sdsu!frost@ucsd.edu>

Summary:
  The Graphon OptimaX 200 looks like an excellent product.  It looks like
it will satisfy my wish for an X environment at home with reasonable
performance beyond my wildest wishings.  I now no longer even consider
the thought of trying to get a Sun for this use.  The simplicity and
performance of this connection technique are wonderful to behold.  I wish
I'd thought of it.  

  I'd like to see higher resolution and an option for a larger screen,
but with the $1395 price tag I think this is an impressive package.  I've
ordered one and will submit a follow up review.

Casey