Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 00:46:39 -0700 From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com> To: "Bill Schoolcraft" <bill@wiliweld.com>, "FreeBSD" <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: RE: BSDi Acquired by Embedded Computing Firm Wind River Message-ID: <001f01c0c192$603efaa0$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com> In-Reply-To: <Pine.GSO.4.30.0104092036280.23718-100000@corten8>
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When discussing desktops and servers in context together, here is the definition: Server: That which is intended and generally provides services to desktops, over the network. Desktop: That which is primary purpose is to serve as a user interface between the human and the services provided by servers on the network. But, before we forget, there's one other type of system: standalone: A host that is intended and generally uses services that it provides itself, and where network connectivity is not particularly critical to it's operation. Basically, a desktop is used by one person to access resources on the network. A server is used by many people that are accessing it's resources over the network. A standalone is used by a person that's only using services provided by that machine - regardless of whether it's connected to a network or not. Of course, many corporate networks are somewhat fuzzy, in that often users may spend much time running Word or Excel and just using their own desktop's resources. But, then when it's time to share their files they copy them up to a server, or e-mail them to each other, they usually don't share out sections of their hard disk. In these cases the intent, particular by the corporation, is that the desktop system does not provide services on the network. Also, the intent by the corporation is that the user assigned to the desktop use it to access other network resources, particularly shared calendaring, e-mail, files, etc. Also, Word and Excel are primariarly user interfaces to the actual physical data in the computer. What's confusing is that many people have taken the word desktop used it when they are talking about a consumer standalone system. One rule of thumb is that if you can pull the network connection out of it and not notice, it's probably a standalone. What most people forget is that a true standalone has pretty stiff requirements - because in addition to serving as the user interface to the human, the standalone needs to have enough power to have resources worth using at all. This is why larger corporations don't run peer-to-peer networks and they also centralize serving - because it's cheaper with a large deployment of PC's to make most of them just barely powerful enough to service a decent user interface. Ted Mittelstaedt tedm@toybox.placo.com Author of: The FreeBSD Corporate Networker's Guide Book website: http://www.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com >-----Original Message----- >From: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG >[mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG]On Behalf Of Bill >Schoolcraft >Sent: Monday, April 09, 2001 9:22 PM >To: FreeBSD >Subject: Re: BSDi Acquired by Embedded Computing Firm Wind River > > >At Tue, 10 Apr 2001 it looks like Richard B Mahoney composed: > > ><humbly_snipped> > >rbm49->In an attempt to keep things in perspective, I would like to >rbm49->mention how satisfied I am with FreeBSD as a workstation. >rbm49-> > ></humbly_snipped> > >......... I've been following this thread and I just have to ask >"What defines a desktop ?" I have been able to run everything on >FreeBSD that I could on Linux. My needs may be different than some. >Could we define what a "desktop" machine _is_ or what it must run to >hold that title ? > >-- >Bill Schoolcraft >PO Box 210076 -o) >San Francisco CA 94121 /\ >"UNIX, A Way Of Life." _\_v >http://forwardslashunix.com > > > > > > > > > >To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org >with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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