28 Jan
2002
28 Jan
'02
6:53 p.m.
> I started internal medicine rotation at the Loma
Linda VA Hospital today
> and noted that the entire place is crawling with WinTerms [...]
:
> Before all of you cry off-topic, doesn't it
seem odd to anyone we're now
> full circle and back to low-power terminals connected to a
> "mainframe," now that corporate America has gotten off its fat client
kick?
There are a number of advantages in centralized
computing. That's one of
the reasons X-terms are so popular in some environments. Centralized
computing, graphics display clients.
Oh, I know. I just thought it was intriguing how wide the pendulum swings.
At PLNU, up until around nine or ten years ago people preferred dummy
terminals hooked up to an AIX server running WordPerfect for Unix. In fact,
the idea of desktop PCs was resisted until the campus network allowed them
to do the same thing over Telnet, and then they got accustomed to Word,
and demanded P3s so they could have k3wl 3-D transitions in their PowerPoint,
and now the pendulum is swinging the other way. There has been some talk
about setting up WinTerm-like systems around there, although I stick my
Mac-lovin' nose up at that idea.
--
----------------------------- personal page: http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ --
Cameron Kaiser, Point Loma Nazarene University * ckaiser(a)stockholm.ptloma.edu
-- In memory of Greg Morris ---------------------------------------------------