[rescue] FDDI card

[Dave McGuire]

On February 25, Amy wrote:
> > actually, if someone thinks that GUI consoles are the best way to deal with
> > SERVERS then it's obvious that not only are they not accustomed to serial
> > consoles, they don't know any better.  GUI consoles are LUDICROUS.
> 
> why?

  They require MUCH MUCH more OS support than a simple serial
port...consoles are intended for system maintenance tasks, and when
something is broken, it's frequently advantageous to simplify things
as much as possible...especially where there are potential hardware
problems involved.

  In other words...for a graphical console to work, lots of things need
to be working correctly...a [obviously non-RS232] serial port for the
keyboard, one for the mouse, a framebuffer, device drivers for the
framebuffer, [possibly] a windowing system and all the overhead stuff
that it requires, etc etc...whereas a simple serial console port
requires that a serial port and basic serial port OS support be
functioning.

      -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire
St. Petersburg, FL         "Less talk.  More synthohol." --Lt. Worf