[2182] in SIPB_Linux_Development
Re: Corel coming to MIT
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jered J Floyd)
Wed Sep 30 13:38:24 1998
To: Matthew K Gray <mkgray@MIT.EDU>
Cc: linux-dev@MIT.EDU
From: Jered J Floyd <jered@MIT.EDU>
Date: 30 Sep 1998 13:36:53 -0400
In-Reply-To: Matthew K Gray's message of 30 Sep 1998 11:10:08 -0400
I can't make the meeting, but I do have a few comments (not
necessarily for Corel but in general.)
I think the Netwinder is very nifty, and it's great to see Corel
supporting it, especially with useful software like office suites,
tools are are sorely lacking for Linux currently. What worries me,
however, is that the Netwinder really falls in the grey area between
'thin client' and 'workstation'. Size and price-wise, they seem to be
trying to position the Netwinder as a thin client system like Oracle's
NCs and Sun's Java Workstations...are relatively odd and unproven
market. The machine itself, however, is fairly powerful, has a good
complement of built-ins, and is essentially a mini-workstation.
That's where it'd be most useful at MIT, as a lightweight workstation,
but I'm not convinced people will buy into it. The Netwinder would
make a nice Linux-Athena box, given software important to Athena users
can be made available. AFS is obviously a big issue, but is
doable. I'm more concerned about courseware that has been made
available for x86 Linux, packages like MATLAB, for instance. If
that was solved, the Netwinder would be a feasable box for incoming
students to buy (or rent?) to have their own Athena workstation.
The Netwinder, while cheap, really isn't that much cheaper than a
decent x86 PC, however...which has the advantages of expandability,
existing software support, and Microsoft products. I'm not sure if
the Netwinder can overcome these issues.
--Jered
