5.0092 Responses: UNIX/VMS; E-Mail to Compuserv (2/61)

Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Wed, 22 May 91 16:06:01 EDT

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 5, No. 0092. Wednesday, 22 May 1991.


(1) Date: Tue, 21 May 91 20:47:44 CDT (16 lines)
From: nm1@Ra.MsState.Edu (Natalie Maynor)
Subject: UNIX/VMS and E-Mail to CompuServe

(2) Date: Wed, 22 May 1991 12:56:08 -0600 (45 lines)
From: d-bantz@uchicago.edu
Subject: Re: 5.0086 NQs: UNIX/VMS

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 May 91 20:47:44 CDT
From: nm1@Ra.MsState.Edu (Natalie Maynor)
Subject: UNIX/VMS and E-Mail to CompuServe

Two quick answers to recent queries:

(1) Maurizio Lana has asked about UNIX vs VMS. I cannot speak for VMS,
but I can say that UNIX (at least on a Sun SPARCserver/490) will serve
all of the purposes mentioned in his note.

(2) David Barry has asked how to send e-mail to CompuServe. If the
CompuServe user number is 72377,1113, send mail to this address:
72377.1113@compuserve.com
Be sure to change the comma to a period.

--Natalie (nm1@ra.msstate.edu)
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------53----
Date: Wed, 22 May 1991 12:56:08 -0600
From: d-bantz@uchicago.edu
Subject: Re: 5.0086 NQs: "Man"liness; E-Mail; E-Journals; REACH (5/104)

---Maurizio Lana <LANA@ITOCISI> wrote in Humanist Discussion Group, Vol.
5, No. 0086. Tuesday, 21 May 1991:

we want to be able to:
- connect to Internet and became an Internet node;
- do interactive remote logins (telnet, ftp, and so on) on hosts of any
type (running VM, VMS, TSO, and so on);
- manage a local Ethernet network (connecting the Departments located in
the buildings of Via S. Ottavio 20) composed by Mac and DOS pc's;
- connect host-to-host (or something like) to remote computing
facilities locat ed about 60 Km. far;

The communications functions listed place relatively little demand on the
cpu; even the small unix boxes (e.g., a Sun sparcstation, NeXT machine,
others) can provide e-mail and ftp for quite a few users (assuming not
everyone at once is using these services). Using POP mail or other
client/server mail systems will reduce the connection time for most users
while providing a better interface and off-load display and composing
tasks to desktop (i.e., Macs and DOS) machines, further reducing the
need for a powerful central machine.

If you have an ethernet network reaching to desktops, users can telnet or
FTP directly (using your central machine as a domain name server perhaps)
without logging in to the central machine at all. This route may allow a
better interface and multiple remote sessions. Even if your users do log
on to your central machine for these internet services, there isn't that
much being done by the box passing through communications between the
desktop session and a remote service.

So for the communications needs you outline, and assuming a few dozen
users, you should be concerned with reliability, comfortable UNIX system
management environment, disk space, and network connections, and not that
concerned with the "performance" in terms of mips or megaflops. For
these communications services you obviously do not need expensive
graphics systems either.

One person's off-the-cuff opinion based only on the limited information
provided! I have presumed your central machine will be a UNIX box.