Re: Character-based (Green screen)/twinax systems?

I don't think we have any users who do not also use PC type applications
such as Office or Lotus Notes. This includes our shop floor users.

IBM used to have these things called "Net Stations". I didn't like them.
For one thing the imbedded browser would never support Notes. One person
I told that to cancelled an order for 3,000 of them. I thought that guy
from IBM was going to go physical on me, (only half joking). They also
had this issue that if you rebooted them during an upgrade they became
grist for the recycler. You tell me that a user was not going to try
rebooting to "get back to work".

IBM tried an alternative to Lan Console and HMC for the system console. It
turned out to be as popular as a turd in the punchbowl and got dropped.

I don't think we've had any ANY twinax devices in 15 years. I don't miss
the unreliability of them. All the wiring issues we had, the switches on
the monitors breaking, twinax pins getting pushed in, shop floor equipment
interference with the signal. Lack of distance the signal could travel.
The complicated mess of remote workstation controllers. How complicated
it was to upgrade their firmware to support advanced OV/400 and NPTUI
enhancements. Good riddance! The "newest" twinax cards sent out an even
weaker signal than the older ones.


Rob Berendt