[rescue] no more GUI consoles!

[Greg A. Woods]

[ On Monday, February 25, 2002 at 03:30:33 (-0600), Amy wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: [rescue] FDDI card
>
> On Mon, 25 Feb 2002, Brian Hechinger 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?

Well let me count some of the ways GUI _consoles_ are ludicrious:

	- drawing a GUI requires transferring a lot of data (as do some
          GUI pointer-movement mechanisms).  This is not a problem if
          you're hitting the a framebuffer on the same bus as your CPU
          lives on, but when you're trying to debug a low-level problem
          with a machine in Pakistan over a saturated high-latency
          satellite link, a serial console is still usable (err, rather
          it's the only form of interface that's even vaguely usable).

	- unless you're Rob Pike and/or willing to live with the same
          extremely minimalist graphical interfaces he and those like
          him design, a GUI requires a LOT of code.  The more code the
          harder it is to squeeze into firmware (that's where the
          console is first used on a server).  The more code the more
          bugs there will be (nothing worse than bugs in firmware!).

	- a GUI requires a lot more hardware to create and display it.
          Serial terminals have been around for over 50 years and still
          require very little hardware, either on the data interface or
          on the human interface.  Almost any old "personal" computer of
          any kind can be pressed into service as a console terminal if
          your main console terminal dies, even the very first
          decades-old ones (which probably still work and which you
          should think of keeping not only because they are nearly
          antiques now by any definition, but also because they are
          useful).

	- GUIs are stupid for such applications -- if you really need a
          little picture to help you configure/monitor/fix your server
          then you are either in the wrong country for your language
          skills, or you have no language skills to start with.

	- you can play video games on a GUI console -- you do not want
          the sys-admin slaves playing video games on the server consoles!

-- 
								Greg A. Woods

+1 416 218-0098;  <gwoods at acm.org>;  <g.a.woods at ieee.org>;  <woods at robohack.ca>
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