From: drew@caesar.cs.colorado.edu (Drew Eckhardt) Subject: Re: Do you 'play' or 'work' with Linux? Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1993 06:27:05 GMT
In article <C93F20.Hon@mailer.cc.fsu.edu> chchen@stat (Ching-Hsiang Chen) writes:
>A similar question had been discussed some time ago in the OS/2 news group.
>I installed Linux on Last June and recently I ask myself this question.
>At first, I want a Unix and X windows because I need a TeX/LaTeX environment
>and in X windows, xdvi and ghostview are excellent. Also, together with
>Emacs's region-compile/preview for TeX files, it seemed that I definitely
>need X widnows and Linux for my TeX jobs. I am also a non-C fortran
>programmer. f2c is pretty good in this. Except for the above works, most
>
>TeX function). f2c's 32 bit executables still are the best for me but
>I found I don't need X windows anymore. Besides, my 14" normmal VGA monitor
>makes it uncomfortable to work under X windows (the charracters not as good
>as in DOS or OS/2, the screen flicking). So I deleted X stuffs and shrinked
>my Linux partition. Now, my uses of Linux is to run f2c.
>
> I want to ask people:
>1. To make it work comfortable in X windows, is a nice SVGA monitor
> necessary? (sounds a stupid question :) ). Also, is a 'bigger' monitor
> necessary?
This is a religious issue : some people won't be happy with anything
less than a 21" 1600x1200 screen, other people will be thrilled with
14" and 800x600.
My personal opinion is that it is largely dependant on the fonts
you choose (you have over 500 bitmapped fonts and a handfull of
scaleable fonts to choose from), how you feel about running at a
reduced resolution (ie, 800x600 vs 1024 x 768) in exchange for a
higher refresh rate, and the quality of the monitor involved (
Remember that Xfree lets you change resolutions on the fly -
I'll zoom in to 800x600 if I'm going to be typing for any length
of time, zoom out to 1024x768 if I need the space for previewing
graphics, 640x480 for games run in a small window or if I want
faster scrolling for rapid-fire text browsing.)
Play with fonts, and your Xconfig settings...
>2. For pure Unix work without X windows, what applications do you think
> you are 'working' with them (not 'playing')?
vi, cc, grep, awk, sed, perl, roff...
I mostly use X because it lets me have six command lines at the same
time.
-- Boycott USL/Novell for their absurd anti-BSDI lawsuit. | Condemn Colorado for Amendment Two. | Drew Eckhardt Use Linux, the fast, flexible, and free 386 unix | drew@cs.Colorado.EDU Will administer Unix for food |