Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!watmath!maytag!watdcsu!pfratar
From: pfratar@watdcsu.waterloo.edu (Paul Frattaroli - DCS)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: Need of Demos and X
Message-ID: <6381@watdcsu.waterloo.edu>
Date: 26 Sep 89 14:06:31 GMT
References: <10017@xanth.cs.odu.edu> <12043@boulder.Colorado.EDU> <14625@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>
Reply-To: pfratar@watdcsu.waterloo.edu (Paul Frattaroli - DCS)
Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 49

In article <14625@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> tuna@athena.mit.edu (Kirk 'UhOh' Johnson) writes:
>In article <10017@xanth.cs.odu.edu> wayne@cs.odu.edu writes:
>%
>% at the moment) Also, this is for me, does anyone know if X windows
>% exsist for a PC?
>
>In article <12043@boulder.Colorado.EDU> gordon@boulder.Colorado.EDU replys:
>%
>% X-windows does run but on 386 class machines under Unix. Some
>% versions of Unix will allow MS-DOS applications to run as well.
>
>at the moment, but i'm pretty sure one of them was even from IBM.
>
>kirk

Hello,
	Yes, one is from IBM, my friend has it running on his model 70.
( He also has AIX for PS/2 386's and PC TCP/IP running also ).
I think however, that you need MCA to run the IBM version and VGA and
'386.  It isn't bad, even having to run the X client on another machine,
with your PC as the X Window Server.  But, it is a bit cramped for space.

Since X was designed for bitmapped screens, ( and most Workstations
nowdays have resolutions on the order of 1152 x 948 ) the 640 x 480
of VGA just doesn't measure up ( and IBM wrote this so SVGA isn't supported
since it isn't their standard ).  Subsequently, some programs for X, that
use an 1152 x 948 bitmap image will only display the top left quarter on a
PS/2 ( for example xphoon ).

Now, for the cost....  The microcomputer store here on campus sells
X-Windows for the PS/2 for $181 ( CDN ).  I am not sure however, if it
runs under DOS or if you need AIX.  Probably the latter. ( AIX sells
for $671 ) You probably also need Ethernet, to connect to a remote host
to run client applications.  X does a lot of communicating between
client and server, and even at 9600 baud it would be very very very
sssslllloooowwww!!!  And as for memory requirements, my friend has
4 Megs. in his PS/2 70, and there is still MAJOR disk swapping when
running AIX and X and occasionally it hangs.

All in all, I don't think it's worth it ( IMHO only ).  At least not
yet anyway, it is still young though.

....Paul F

-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
            Paul Frattaroli - Department of Computing Services
                        University of Waterloo
< pfratar@watshine.waterloo.edu >         < pfratar@watdcsu.waterloo.edu >