[comp.misc] Review on workstations?

inm501@csc.anu.edu.au (04/25/91)

	I am asking this on behalf of a friend.  Is there any review which
compare the price/performance ratio, and other aspect of "popular"
workstations?  Thanks in advance.

Ida

zaft@ed8sun4.nswses.Navy.MIL (Gordon C Zaft) (04/26/91)

In article <1991Apr25.094508.1@csc.anu.edu.au> inm501@csc.anu.edu.au writes:
>
>	I am asking this on behalf of a friend.  Is there any review which
>compare the price/performance ratio, and other aspect of "popular"
>workstations?  Thanks in advance.
>
>Ida

	The April '91 issue of IEEE Spectrum has a special section devoted
entirely to workstations.

--
+  Gordon Zaft                        |  zaft@suned1.nswses.navy.mil         +
+  NSWSES, Code 4Y33                  |  suned1!zaft@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov      +
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** ..et resurrexit tertia die secundum scripturas, et ascendit in coelum.. ***

fink@acf5.NYU.EDU (Howard Fink) (04/27/91)

The magazine Personal Workstation is devoted to the subject.

jiro@shaman.com (Jiro Nakamura) (04/27/91)

In article <28300001@acf5.NYU.EDU> fink@acf5.NYU.EDU (Howard Fink) writes:
>The magazine Personal Workstation is devoted to the subject.

[Major flame on]

	Hah! THey *say* they are devoted to workstations. In reality
they are a glorified PC/MS-DOS magazine. Look at their content, all they
talk about is VGA, EISA, blah blah. Also what is their idea of a networking
OS?  MS-DOS or OS/2 with Novell. Give me a break. Their coverage of real
workstations or even personal workstations is minimal and of token value.
	I used to subscribe to MIPS before it became PW. Then MIPS became
bought out and became the sh*t it is now in the form of PW. I eventually
had to revoke my subscription, I was so disgusted.
	What can you say about a "Personal Workstation" magazine that
gives its e-mail address as:

	"On Usenet, send letters to uunet!pwmag!editors."

	On Usenet? Excuse me? Can I send them something via rn, perhaps?
Or should I use Pnews? I think they might mean Internet, but then again
they are giving an ancient format UUCP address. Hmm.... I wonder what the
technical competence of their editors *really* is.
	Oh, since I have a PW in front of me, this is the content of a 
"personal workstation" magazine: (Nov, 1990)
	
	38 -- Power Up (Cover Story)  [how to upgrade to i386 or i486)
	58 The Personal Portable Workstation [talk about PC Laptops, no
					Sony laptop Sparcs]
	70 You and Your ODT [Finally, an X.desktop article]
	81 Micronics: EISA vs ISA [see!]
	84 Securing the Netstation [talking about Compaq and Datamedia]
	92 Interacting with MetaDesign [Design program, some UNIX]
	97 Great Performs: Micronics 486 board
	101 Beyond DOS: The Unix and OS/2 solution
	

	Their editors make it *quite* clear that they are interested in
i386 and i486 solutions to personal workstations. Bleh is my answer. Bleh.

[ Flame off]

	For a so-so personal workstation magazine, read Unix World. It
too suffers from the gloss problem, but is still readable.

	- jiro nakamura

ps. I have no connection with PW other than I strongly dislike them. I
have no connection with UW other than I can bear to live with them.




-- 
Jiro Nakamura				jiro@shaman.com
Shaman Consulting			(607) 253-0687 VOICE
"Bring your dead, dying shamans here!"	(607) 253-7809 FAX/Modem

ac999321@umbc5.umbc.edu (ac999321) (04/27/91)

In article <28300001@acf5.NYU.EDU> fink@acf5.NYU.EDU (Howard Fink) writes:
>The magazine Personal Workstation is devoted to the subject.

Quite sorry to have to break the news to you, but that magazine only 
covers _*TOY*_ workstations based on IBM PC type computers.
   /\      /\              /\
/\/  \/\/\/  \/\/\/\/\/\/\/  \/\/\/
Another quality flame brought to you
by the Association of Demented Affiliated
MS-DOS/MS-Windows/MacIntosh Bashers of America 
in Affiliation with Procrastinators Anonymous
and The International Nocturnal Hackers Alliance
in conjunction with the Antique and Obsolete
Computer Users Association (planning violent
boycotts of scrap metal dealers worlwide and
proposing laws which would make the destruction
of usable computer equipment illegal).

-- 
**********************************************************************
Robert D. Davis           # Any opinions expressed above are my own
+1-301-744-7964           # and not those of my computer systems.
ac999321@umbc5.umbc.edu   #-------------------------------------------

cgy@cs.brown.edu (Curtis Yarvin) (04/28/91)

In article <1991Apr26.224317.669@shaman.com> jiro@shaman.com (Jiro Nakamura) writes:
>In article <28300001@acf5.NYU.EDU> fink@acf5.NYU.EDU (Howard Fink) writes:
>>The magazine Personal Workstation is devoted to the subject.
>
>[Major flame on]
>
>	Hah! THey *say* they are devoted to workstations. In reality
>they are a glorified PC/MS-DOS magazine. Look at their content, all they
>talk about is VGA, EISA, blah blah. Also what is their idea of a networking
>OS?  MS-DOS or OS/2 with Novell. Give me a break. Their coverage of real
>workstations or even personal workstations is minimal and of token value.
>	I used to subscribe to MIPS before it became PW. Then MIPS became
>bought out and became the sh*t it is now in the form of PW. I eventually
>had to revoke my subscription, I was so disgusted.

Total agreement.

MIPS was a great magazine. Perhaps a godly magazine.  It was a magazine with
BALLS.  It was a magazine with consummate respect for the sharp, cool taste
of Refined Power.  It was a magazine so close to the cutting edge of
technology that you could feel your thumbnails cleanly slicing the meaty
flesh of the Future as you flipped through the pages.  It was a magazine
worth subscribing to for the ADS alone.

For about six months MIPS was my "Road & Track" or "The Absolute Sound".  It
was not a magazine to read as a prospective consumer.  In fact, it was not
even a magazine to read.  It was a magazine to Drool Over.

But it changed.  The Powers of Darkness thrust out their cold hands and
clenched icy fists around the heart of Truth.  The first sign of rot...  I
woke up one fine morning to find a magazine named "Personal Workstation" in
my mailbox.  What was this repulsive beast?  From what dank bog had it
crept?  Peering behind the mailbox for a trail of slime, I scanned the cover
anxiously.  It turned out to be good old MIPS; simultaneous relief and
sadness.  Legal problems, I decided.  The slings and arrows of our litigious
society had crashed against the shining gates of Righteousness.  But what,
after all, is in a name?  Even a gelatinous little name like "Personal
Workstation."

Yet, alas, it was true.  Gresham's Law rode its iron hog of corruption into
the guts of "Personal Workstation."  Sharply written technical articles were
replaced by drawn-out marketing dross.  The cutting edge of technology
disappeared; in its place followed only the wasting death of obsolescence.

Excuse me; I must mourn.

john@jwt.UUCP (John Temples) (04/29/91)

In article <1991Apr27.023855.8861@umbc3.umbc.edu> ac999321@umbc5.umbc.edu (ac999321) writes:
>In article <28300001@acf5.NYU.EDU> fink@acf5.NYU.EDU (Howard Fink) writes:
>>The magazine Personal Workstation is devoted to the subject.
>
>Quite sorry to have to break the news to you, but that magazine only 
>covers _*TOY*_ workstations based on IBM PC type computers.

Guess you missed the one with the OS/2 benchmarks on the Sparcstation, huh?

But seriously, your comment is totally bogus.  They cover lots of stuff,
though there is probably more emphasis on 386/486 systems than others.
-- 
John W. Temples -- john@jwt.UUCP (uunet!jwt!john)