(NCs and other tools of the Devil)

[Nicholls, David]

-----Original Message-----
From: brd@dynamite.com.au [mailto:brd@dynamite.com.au]
Sent: Friday, 6 November 1998 11:19 AM
To: link@www.anu.edu.au
Subject: 

......(snipped)

: The point of this is that without the technology, I cannot work.
It's as simple as that.

When out departmental network crashes (usually around once a month) we all
realise how we depend on the PC for perhaps 90% of our activities.

: The advantage of dumb terminals and network computers
is that you can walk up to any user device, log on and be presented
with your own personal computing environment.

This assumes that there is a degree of homogeneity of user requirements for
PC/NCs.  Certainly in this department (ISR, ex DIST) there is a considerable
diversity of requirements.  The roaming profile process we have set up on
PCs running NT4 on a  Novell LAN has been a source of *endless* pain for the
users and the support areas.  In hindsight, IMO, it was a very bad idea.

: I know of several
organisations that do exactly this with PCs, something of a waste,
but it addresses the problem. The servers need to be well protected but it
is
easier to do this with a few machines than for all user
devices.

If everyone is processing eg insurance claims forms or tax returns, perhaps
the NC/dumb terminal makes sense.  In a normal heterogeneous organisation,
NCs and even roaming profiles are a catastrophe. They require, apart from
anything else, that everyone be reduced to a lowest common denominator. It
is *very* restricting on how even moderately computer literate users can
operate.


: NCs may not happen overnight, but they will happen.

Not in this organisation, if I have any say in it at all!!!

DN
CCST/PMSEIC
ISR
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