Corel® LINUX® OS Desktop to Access and Run Windows®

[David Allen]

** Reply to note from kplug-list at kernel-panic.com Sat, 8 Jan 2000 00:17:02 -0500 (EST)
>   
> Actually Rich, The article may be misleading to some, in that what they are saying is that
> you can't actually , on one desktop, run MS word, Excel, games etc, on your home personal
> computer (through the way they are talking about); what you can do is log into a windows
> server and run an application like MS WOrd or Excel remotely, that is, the program is
> actually running on another computer, and it's just getting keyboard and mouse, and
> exporting the display to your computer (they do this in companies with large networks).
> There is of course, as I am sure it will be pointed out, WINE, which does allow you to run
> windows program directly on your linux computer (in the manner which you are probably
> expecting); however, but it isn't perfect, and still probably isn't safe to count on. But
> remember there is always Wordperfect..
>   
> Hope this helps, Maneesh 

In other words - mainframe, glass-house computing. Only this time with color! Well, that and
a user profile for which colors. I am not sure why there is a returning interest in moving
away from distributed computing - one CPU for each user, back to an environment of dumb
terminals for the dumb masses running on big iron.

This does not seem to be efficient in terms of computing, and, in my experience, not in terms
of support costs. Face it, hardware is the least of costs today, especially if you are paying
someone like M$ a per-use license at the client end, and a subscription-type license at the
server end.

Having worked in a large physical plant (45+ acres) with computing needs varying from simple
clerical work to specialized machine shop applications to plant maintenance to bleeding edge
DARPA-funded engineering simulations, my opinion is that it is best to provide a single
solution for each single problem or need.

It just never really works, especially in a heterogeneous platform environment to try to make
one solution fit all problems. I always found it much more efficient of human resources,
which accounts for the single greatest expense in any company, to just give someone as many
boxes as they have unique problems or needs. In many cases, an area can share pooled
computing resources if these resources are only occassionally used by any one person.

Unfortunately, too often, IS departments don't see their job as providing solutions for their
customers, but focus instead on making their own jobs easier and their costs lower, no matter
the expense and inconvience to their customers. If the focus is on customer needs, and doing
research, without any "Not invented here" attitude (as in "Sorry, but we just don't support
that operating system"), then everything else falls into place. The customer is happy, the
boss is happy, and the bean counters are happy.

Most importantly, productive work gets done - which is the whole point of business.

                           Sincerely, David Allen
                           <jallen at cts.com>