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Perhaps he's using it just as an X server. Around 15 ago, some of the other people on my systems programming team didn't care to run a fat Linux PC desktop --
by Erwin 12y ago
Perhaps he's using it just as an X server. Around 15 ago, some of the other people on my systems programming team didn't care to run a fat Linux PC desktop -- they just had a X machine that booted over the network from a "big" UNIX server and logged into to their FVWM or such environment. That's handy as you could go and login on any other X workstation and get the same desktop environment.
- codezero 12y agoLooking at the Wiki page, the Sun Blade 100 dates from 2000 to 2006, PCs from that era were reasonably powerful by most modern standards, just lacked 1) a lot of cores, 2) shitloads of memory. For most uses, they are still great for daily tasks, and at a university, he probably had access to some remote supercomputer if he really needed it :P My ageist perspective here is that what you're describing takes a bit of work and most "older" profs can't be arsed to do that work, so the simplest explanation is that he just still runs an old computer :)
- dredmorbius 12y agoLetting someone else worry about your backups and such is a benefit of centralized servers w/ remote X11 displays. Assuming you trust the network.