From: "Theodore Ts'o" <tytso@mit.edu>
To: Dan Cross <crossd@gmail.com>
Cc: Paul Ruizendaal <pnr@planet.nl>, "tuhs@tuhs.org" <tuhs@tuhs.org>
Subject: [TUHS] Re: Origins of the frame buffer device
Date: Wed, 8 Mar 2023 11:55:38 -0500 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20230308165538.GB1867364@mit.edu> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CAEoi9W6ZVCuVu2cRsfJkJsbHH6HqZrMUdDJ5SvLUfm_JOGN0wg@mail.gmail.com>
On Wed, Mar 08, 2023 at 09:23:56AM -0500, Dan Cross wrote:
>
> By the early 90s this was understood to mean a single-user machine in
> a desktop or deskside form factor with a graphics display, and a more
> advanced operating system than something you'd get on a consumer-grade
> machine. But the term probably predated that. Generally, workstations
> were machines marketed towards science/engineering/technology
> applications, and so intended for a person doing "work", as opposed to
> home computing or large scale business data-processing.
It's perhaps interesting to look at the history of A/UX. In 1988
Apple released a version of Unix based on SVR2. It was massively
criticized for being command-line only (no X windows or any other kind
of GUI).
A year later, they came out with a version with X Windows, which made
it roughly comprable to a low-end Sun Workstation, at a price of $9k.
Given that in addition to the 3M's (1 MIPS, 1 Meg of Memory, and 1
Megapixel graphics display), it also adhered to the "4th M", costing
roughly $10k, or a "Megapenny". :-)
It seems to me that in the late 80's / early 90's, it was pretty clear
what people were expecting if you wanted something more than a "toy"
(err..., sorry, a "home") computer. And Apple wanted to get into that
game and play, too. Of course, they later decided this wasn't a place
where they really could compete, especially since in 1990 Sun released
a low-end Workstation for $5k (the Sparcstation SLC).
And by 1992, you could get a very credible Linux home machine with X
Windows, for about $2k. It's kind of amazing how quickly a personal
Workstation became quite affordable, even for a graduate student or a
new college grad (like me!), out of their own personal checking
account.
- Ted
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2023-03-08 16:55 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 40+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2023-03-05 15:01 [TUHS] " Paul Ruizendaal via TUHS
2023-03-05 17:29 ` [TUHS] " Grant Taylor via TUHS
2023-03-05 18:25 ` Kenneth Goodwin
2023-03-06 8:51 ` Paul Ruizendaal via TUHS
2023-03-06 8:57 ` Rob Pike
2023-03-06 11:09 ` Henry Bent
2023-03-06 16:02 ` Theodore Ts'o
2023-03-06 22:47 ` Paul Ruizendaal via TUHS
2023-03-06 23:10 ` Rob Pike
2023-03-08 12:53 ` Paul Ruizendaal
2023-03-08 14:23 ` Dan Cross
2023-03-08 15:06 ` Paul Ruizendaal
2023-03-08 19:35 ` Dan Cross
2023-03-08 16:55 ` Theodore Ts'o [this message]
2023-03-08 17:46 ` Clem Cole
2023-03-08 17:45 ` Clem Cole
2023-03-08 18:12 ` segaloco via TUHS
2023-03-08 18:21 ` Larry McVoy
2023-03-08 18:43 ` Kenneth Goodwin
2023-03-08 18:45 ` Steffen Nurpmeso
2023-03-08 22:44 ` Clem Cole
2023-03-09 14:42 ` Paul Winalski
2023-03-06 23:20 ` segaloco via TUHS
2023-03-07 1:24 ` Kenneth Goodwin
2023-03-08 3:07 ` Rob Gingell
2023-03-08 12:51 ` Paul Ruizendaal via TUHS
2023-03-08 13:05 ` Warner Losh
2023-03-08 13:17 ` Arno Griffioen via TUHS
2023-03-07 1:54 ` Kenneth Goodwin
2023-03-05 18:52 Noel Chiappa
2023-03-05 20:43 ` Rob Pike
2023-03-06 10:43 ` Jonathan Gray
2023-03-07 1:21 ` Kenneth Goodwin
2023-03-08 5:43 ` Lars Brinkhoff
2023-03-09 23:24 ` emanuel stiebler
2023-03-10 1:44 ` Lawrence Stewart
2023-03-06 23:16 Norman Wilson
2023-03-06 23:24 ` Larry McVoy
2023-03-07 12:08 ` arnold
2023-03-07 16:42 ` Theodore Ts'o
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