Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!usc!bbn!oliveb!pyramid!ctnews!mitisft!kemnitz From: kemnitz@mitisft.Convergent.COM (Gregory Kemnitz) Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: What differentiates a Workstation from a PC (Re: What should GNU run on (was Re: what kinds of things . . .)) Summary: Software Message-ID: <1168@mitisft.Convergent.COM> Date: 16 Aug 89 02:51:49 GMT References: <20519@adm.BRL.MIL> <36370@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <5665@ficc.uu.net> <5687@ficc.uu.net> <12035@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com> Reply-To: kemnitz@mitisft.UUCP (Greg Kemnitz) Organization: Unisys Network Computing Group, San Jose Lines: 22 Software for personal computers (MS-DOS machines, Macs, Amigas) tends to cost generally less than one thousand dollars for all but the most super-duper special purpose software. However, virtually everything for 'workstations' is atrociously expensive in comparison, if the software exists at all. It seems that virtually every piece of software available for workstations is stuff to facilitate hardware or software development in one way or another. There is almost no general-purpose (non-techie) software for workstations, and what little there is costs thousands. Does software with a decent user interface other than clocks and calculators even exist on workstations for less than $5K?? While it is true that prices quoted for low-end workstations are about the same as high-end PC's, to get a truly usable workstation (big disk, memory, software if it exists) system easily doubles or triples the base price, while to get a fully-featured PC the investment may multiply the basic price by 1.5 or so. ----------------------------------+-------------------------------------- Greg Kemnitz | Software without hardware is an idea. kemnitz@Convergent.COM | Hardware without software is a space heater. soon: | kemnitz@postgres.berkeley.edu | --Unknown author