[NTLUG:Discuss] Off topic question: General exceed question

[Rick Cook]

On Wednesday 17 January 2001 15:05, bb wolf wrote:
> Gang,
>
> to all the gurus out there in linux/unix land. We are
> using Hummingbird Exceed to access unix systems within
> the environment from pc's. I know ,,,, M$ is
> everywhere!
>
> Anyone familiar how to setup mapping keys between the
> pc environment to cut-n-paste ... using the keyboard
> shortcuts? Looking to move seamlessly between the
> control c/x/v in office apps to the linux/unix
> environment. I have not found any useful faq's out
> there!
>
> Any ideas or suggestions are greatly appreciated!
>

Sort of a suggestion. Really, this is more of a real life story. Any one who 
isn't interested in that kind of stuff can stop reading now.


Almost five years ago, I faced a similar situation. I had just received a 
Gateway P5-133XL that I was supposed to use to replace the HDS Ultra-17 CT X 
Display that was my desktop interface to the Solaris and IRIX machines that I 
used in my day to day activity. I had seen Windows on PC before, but had 
never had to deal with it.

All of the sudden, I was faced with learning about things like eXceed, 
Microsoft Mail, PathWorks LAN Manger, etc. Not to mention Windows 3.1 (our 
company took Windows 95 off of the machines as they arrived and replaced it 
with WfW 3.11) and the Microsoft Office Suite. After two weeks of struggling 
with crashing Windows, eXceed lock ups, and a Microsoft Mail system totally 
disconnected from the SMTP mail system, I was ready to throw the Gateway out 
the window. Fortunately for my company (in this instance), we don't have any 
(glass) windows. And, I remember this thing I had heard a couple of guys were 
using on their PCs called Linux. 6 hours of ftp time later, I had a copy of 
Slackware 3.0 (I think) ready to install.

Having done the installation for RSX-11M, RISC-OS, SunOS, and Solaris 
already, nothing about this Linux process seemed too intimidating (except the 
FIPS process). Everything actually went very smoothly and soon I was happily 
back in my "normal" Unix feeling environment. Not only that, I had an X 
server that was orders of magnitude faster and more stable than the eXceed 
server running on the same platform.

And the rest is history... As an interesting side note, I have more actual 
hands on interaction time with an RCA COSMAC development station (for the CDP 
1802 processor) than I do with Microsoft Windows. Not that I am recommending 
either.

The moral (and relevancy to this thread) of the story: If you need an X 
server that does what you want, install Linux. You will be a much happier and 
well adjusted person.

Rick Cook
-- 
rcook at ntlug.org
rcook at hex.net