From: ajayshah@almaak.usc.edu (Ajay Shah) Subject: Re: X terminals: Suggestion for projects like SLS, MCC, etc. Date: 11 Jun 1993 13:33:24 -0700
pmacdona@sanjuan (Peter MacDonald) writes:
>Unless you have scads or RAM (16Meg at least) there are problems running
>X and Linux without swap space. Basically, you could be faced with a
>locked up machine every so often. Therefore, it is best not to eliminate
>the HD all together.
I find Linux's handling of "out of swap" to be quite lousy.
Surely he can detect it and handle it better?
>Also, minor network problems, can completely kill your X terminal, while
>the stand alone WS keeps on humming. But some people (I'm not one of them)
>don't mind this.
X terminals do have their attractions. Many a computation-intensive
task cannot be done at the local workstation but can use a remote
workstation or server. In the specific case of Linux, the best Unix
commercial software for Unix exists on SPARC/SunOS. It makes a lot of
sense to run processes on a remote SPARC box and do display on the
local PC (in my suggestion, the local PC runs Linux+X).
X terminals are VERY easy to administer as compared with workstations.
Earlier in this thread some mentioned ROMming the Linux + X code.
That would be a pain upgrading? Both Linux and X do experience
source changes, and anything with ROM involved would become too
static. In contrast SLS is able to readily use the newest available
from Linux and X.
-ans.
-- Ajay Shah, (213)749-8133, ajayshah@rcf.usc.edu