X sucks (was: Re: Ware Ware Wizardjin)

[Max Tardiveau]

In article <1991Apr13.173834.14543 at decuac.dec.com> mjr at hussar.dco.dec.com

> root at NEXTSERVER.CS.STTHOMAS.EDU (Max Tardiveau) concisely states the problem

>  >[...] (PostScript). It does require more power to run, but is
>  >so much better, and machines are getting more powerful every day
>  >anyway.
>
>	   This is the issue. Window systems already hog to much power.
>
>	   "Machines are getting more powerful every day anyway" - and 
>   spending that power interpreting PostScript (best done by dedicated
>   hardware rather than my expensive RISC workstation) instead of crunching
>   the numbers I want crunched is not good.

This is obviously a matter of opinion. While I agree with you that
windowing systems take a large amount of power, I would argue that
it is not too much. I like having nice graphics on my workstation,
and I like to have responsive windows. And, like most people, I use
only a small portion of the processing power of my workstations
(show me a Sparcstation that's 100% busy 100% of the time. There
are probably a few, but not a whole lot).
I think it's worth it. If you need all the power you can get, 
there are alternatives to X. On a Sun, you can
run SunView, which takes relatively little power to run.

---------------------------------------------------------------
Max Tardiveau
Department of Computer Science
University of St.Thomas
St.Paul, MN  55105
Internet : m9tardiv at cs.stthomas.edu
---------------------------------------------------------------
"Ban the bomb.  Save the world for conventional warfare."