Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2001 11:48:56 -0500 From: Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> To: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com> Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: RE: BSDi Acquired by Embedded Computing Firm Wind River Message-ID: <15060.35576.658846.592778@guru.mired.org> In-Reply-To: <120334066@toto.iv>
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Ted Mittelstaedt <tedm@toybox.placo.com> types: > In a purely UNIX shop, I'd expect that the desktops would indeed be > running X Servers, and that the server systems would be running X > client programs. In a purely Windows shop, I'd expect the desktops > to be running user interface application programs, while the server > systems ran back-end processing like SQL, file serving, mail, etc. > In both shops, the desktops are primarily concerned with user > interface code, while the servers are doing the real work. I've never seen a unix shop - pure or otherwise - set up as Ted describes. That's pretty much the X-term model, and I have seen sites that use a lot of them. I've also known people who ran their X window manager on the server because they got quicker responses that way, but that doesn't make it a common practice. The advantages that accrue to centralized servers for home directories, mail, print, SQL, ans such like exist just as much in Unix as they do in Windows. Having the ability to do things either way is a benefit but you sometimes wish it couldn't. For instance, that thought is *very* near while walking the halls trying to find the bonehead who has configured his system to talk directly to the network printer instead of your print server, and is repeatedly sending a job that's crashing the printer before it identifies him. > In the UNIX way, the presentation apps are programs like window > managers, web browsers, etc. In the Windows way, the presentation > apps are programs like wordprocessors, spreadsheets, etc. In the > Windows method, slightly more processing is moved from the server to the > desktop, but really, it's insignificant when you consider how much of > the Windows OS is concerned with UI junk like dancing paper clips. Unix has those Windows presentation programs, in some cases since before there was a Windows market worth noticing. That you can run them either on your desktop, if you've got a nice fast box, or on the CPU server in the machine room is a great benefit. <mike -- Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/ Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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