Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcs!tj From: tj@utcs.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: Mainframe vs Micro Message-ID: <1987Jan3.094949.22738@utcs.uucp> Date: Sat, 3-Jan-87 09:49:49 EST Article-I.D.: utcs.1987Jan3.094949.22738 Posted: Sat Jan 3 09:49:49 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 3-Jan-87 10:35:16 EST References: <657@imsvax.UUCP> Reply-To: tj@utcs.UUCP (tj) Organization: University of Toronto Computing Services, general purpose UNIX Lines: 28 Checksum: 28810 I think a lot of you might be missing some of the VERY important driving forces that are pushing people to micros. I have talked with a lot of micro users and I have seen our mainframes grow idle. People percieve micros as a fixed cost for computing. They buy it and no matter how much they use it it doesn't cost them more. Easy for them to budget for. Micro's are totally under their control. The software versions don't change unless THEY change it. On mainframes RARELY can a user bring in their program that used to work a year ago and have it still work. A version of software has changed, hardware has changed, files have been moved. Sure they may have written their program badly to make it device or version dependant, but that is not the point. Last year it worked. Micro users find text processing easier on micro's than on mainframes. So do I! There may be amazing programs on mainframes with amazing capabilities, but the speed of the video display on a micro and the almost WYSIWYG is quite nice. We are seeing a "returning" to mainframes by some micro users that are realizing that micro's can't do it all or at least not in a reasonable amount of time, but that above reasons are very good ones to avoid mainframes! (Save the flames, I am both a mainframe and a micro user. I use which ever is best suited for the purpose. Of course I work for the computer center so I don't have to pay which makes the decision of which to use much easier!) tj