Well, my experience with an IBM operators console was back in the mid-80s with a twin 4381 setup. It was sometimes more convenient for me to set up a big print

Well, my experience with an IBM operators console was back in the mid-80s with a twin 4381 setup. It was sometimes more convenient for me to set up a big print job at the main site which had a high performance printer (I actually wrote a multi-site print spooling service in ReXX earlier, but it was more efficient for big jobs (ha-ha for UK readers) to execute them directly). Anyway, my experience - I am in Linda's office - Linda (system manager) is not in yet, the system console is just convenient: Me: set up job, using normal keyboard commands, with my usual login, no special privileges. Linda: (just comes in) What you doing? Me: Don't get your knickers in a twist. And can you make me a coffee? Linda: Aargh! OK (we were friends), but don't press Button-B! One of my many problems with function keys. Button-B would probably just have requested an operator to unmount a disk (or whatever), but who knows.