[TUHS] Origins of the frame buffer device

[Theodore Ts'o]

On Wed, Mar 08, 2023 at 09:23:56AM -0500, Dan Cross wrote:
> 
> By the early 90s this was understood to mean a single-user machine in
> a desktop or deskside form factor with a graphics display, and a more
> advanced operating system than something you'd get on a consumer-grade
> machine.  But the term probably predated that. Generally, workstations
> were machines marketed towards science/engineering/technology
> applications, and so intended for a person doing "work", as opposed to
> home computing or large scale business data-processing.

It's perhaps interesting to look at the history of A/UX.  In 1988
Apple released a version of Unix based on SVR2.  It was massively
criticized for being command-line only (no X windows or any other kind
of GUI).

A year later, they came out with a version with X Windows, which made
it roughly comprable to a low-end Sun Workstation, at a price of $9k.
Given that in addition to the 3M's (1 MIPS, 1 Meg of Memory, and 1
Megapixel graphics display), it also adhered to the "4th M", costing
roughly $10k, or a "Megapenny".  :-)

It seems to me that in the late 80's / early 90's, it was pretty clear
what people were expecting if you wanted something more than a "toy"
(err..., sorry, a "home") computer.  And Apple wanted to get into that
game and play, too.  Of course, they later decided this wasn't a place
where they really could compete, especially since in 1990 Sun released
a low-end Workstation for $5k (the Sparcstation SLC).

And by 1992, you could get a very credible Linux home machine with X
Windows, for about $2k.  It's kind of amazing how quickly a personal
Workstation became quite affordable, even for a graduate student or a
new college grad (like me!), out of their own personal checking
account.

  	  	      	      	   		- Ted