Donna Garverick wrote in message ...
>news.gofast.net wrote:
>
>>   Something X-friendly would be a big help as well.
>
>you know...this is quite interesting (at least to me (and we all know how
>easily entertained i am :-)).  in the last couple of weeks we (3000-l) have
>several 'requests' for an x-term interface to mpe.  is this a market-force
>kind of issue (do note that (i believe) system improvement ballot has an
item
>for a windows interface to mpe)?  or is just a vocal
          -
>d
>


    Well, I can't speak for everyone else, but...

    I'm working for a credit union that is experimenting with the idea of
using Linux as a platform for teller machines.  These are systems that
basically need to run three things -- email, web and a terminal emulator to
connect to our 3000.  They also need to have decent security, and connect to
a Novell network.  Right now, we're using Windows NT 4.0, which leads to an
awfully high cost-per-workstation -- I'm not even going to try and come up
with an estimate, but I'm guessing it easily exceeds $2000 per, between
licences and minimum hardware requirements (and totally leaving aside
cost-of-ownership).

    We've had terrific luck using Linux on the server side (web, mail, DNS,
ntp and samba), and we're thinking that with the lower hardware
requirements, centralizable management and better idiot-proofing of a
well-set-up Linux workstation, we may be able to save ourselves a pretty
significant pile.  It's still in the investigative stages -- we're just
leaving "can it be done?" and entering "will it work in real life?" -- but
it's looking like we may very well be in the market for some decent terminal
emulation for Linux before very long.

    By the way, the "xhpterm" program available at www.telamon.com is pretty
good -- it's not exactly feature-packed or anything, but it will do the job,
and at least serve for a demo.

--
schabe @ dogma.org
http://elohim.dogma.org