CHERRY@FRODO.MGH.HARVARD.EDU (Mike Cherry 726-5955) (04/19/91)
Recently I was curious about the distribution of computer system types used by people on the Arabidopsis list so I used the HINFO field of the DNS to check the Internet addresses from the last list Chris Somerville posted before the BioSci switch. The DNS is the electronic distributed database of computers on the Internet. First here is the distribution for all subscribers. There were 94 of the addresses were for hosts that did not have a HINFO entry or were Bitnet. Number Computer Operating System ========= =========== ================= 4 Convex Unix 1 Facom Unix 2 HP Unix 2 IBM VM 4 IBM MTS 12 IBM VM/SP 4 IBM VM/CMS 20 VAX Ultrix 47 VAX VMS 1 Next Unix 2 Sequent Unix 19 Sun Unix Totals: Unix 49 41.53% VMS 47 39.83% IBM 22 18.64% Then removing multiple addresses for a single machine I got: Number Computer Operating System ========= =========== ================= 3 Convex Unix 1 Facom Unix 2 HP Unix 2 IBM VM 3 IBM MTS 5 IBM VM/SP 2 IBM VM/CMS 5 VAX Ultrix 16 VAX VMS 1 Next Unix 2 Sequent Unix 12 Sun Unix Totals: Unix 26 48.15% VMS 16 29.63% IBM 12 22.22% It would appear that there are more Unix machines involved in receiving mail for the Arabidopsis list but that about the same number of subscribers use Unix as use VMS. I in no way wish to start a "my computer is better than your computer" discussion on this list. I just thought it would be interesting to see what people are currently using. Mike Cherry cherry@frodo.mgh.harvard.edu