11 Jun
2009
11 Jun
'09
1:52 p.m.
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Dave McGuire wrote:
On Jun 11, 2009, at 4:17 PM, Kirn Gill wrote:
Graphics hardware on a server becomes useful if the server needs to be
fixed.
Though my idea of "graphics hardware" is a cheap VGA monitor and VESA
text mode.
Some of those VESA advanced text modes are nice.
132x60 is nice on a 21" display.
It's also good for debugging.
Otherwise, servers need no display, and should have no display.
In my experience, the difference between
"workstation" and
"server" is how you use it. A "server" is a computer running
various daemons that make the "server" machine the central point
for activity of network clients. Web server, FTP server, mail
server, NIS server, NFS server, Samba server, etc. A
"workstation" is everything else. Web browsing (MySpace),
Solitaire, and Minesweeper.
For me, "server" hardware (that meant to be used as a server and
not a workstation) is just specialized workstation hardware
designed to maximize processor and data throughput.
It's more a matter of "computer" hardware being specialized to be
an effective workstation or an effective server. There are big
differences, despite many people very commonly using workstations
as servers.
Geneally, these machines are also undesirable to
be used as
workstations (nonstandard disk options [RAID arrays and lack of
CD-ROM],
RAID array is quite a common "standard" disk configuration on
servers. I don't think I've seen a server in the past ten years
that didn't have an optical drive, though.
lack of a local console, graphics that go no
further than 2D
hardware accel, or even standard VGA), but can seriously
outperform most workstations and some gaming rigs.
Graphics hardware has *no* place on a server. The fact that many
servers have graphics hardware doesn't change this. Though
admittedly it is somewhat of a matter of opinion, I have damn good
reasons for my opinion.
-Dave
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