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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