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Best of the Newsgroups: double vision vs. facetwin, ttysnoop, watch

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From: "Brian K. White" <brian@aljex.com>
Subject: Re: Double Vision - Tridia.
Date: 9 Sep 2005 17:15:59 -0400
Message-ID: <076f01c5b583$a4c0d010$6600000a@venti> 
References: <hLoTe.671$zq6.441@newssvr27.news.prodigy.net> <jbtTe.528$au2.394@newssvr17.news.prodigy.com> <ozDTe.1331$eQ7.500@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com> <SSFTe.3$Aa1.1@newssvr23.news.prodigy.net> <QmOTe.232331$tt5.46450@edtnps90> <1126196214.810466.222860@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> 


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <vfrese@tridia.com>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sco.misc
To: <distro@jpr.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 08, 2005 12:16 PM
Subject: Re: Double Vision - Tridia.

> All DoubleVision Pro Users:
>
> I am very sorry for any problems you have had contacting Tridia.  Our
> phone lines when down Tuesday morning, September 6th.  Due to the
> hurricane, Bellsouth's service department is very taxed and it took
> them until Wednesday afternoon, September 7th to restore our lines.
> Tridia is very much a vibrant company with great products and great
> people.  If you have had any problems contacting Tridia prior to
> September 6th, please let me know personally.  We pride ourselves on
> being very responsive to customers and if we are not doing that, I want
> to know.
>
> Our website has undergone a major facelift in the last 3 months.
> Please visit www.tridia.com and let me know what you think.  We are
> also very excited about our new iTivity product.  We have a great
> upgrade path for all DoubleVision Pro users.  iTivity comes with a
> secure telnet client that allows you to access all of your UNIX/Linux
> systems over an 1024-bit encrypted channel.  You can even run your
> existing DoubleVision or DoubleVision Pro software using iTivity.  So,
> with iTivity you lose nothing and gain everything.
>
> I am always interested in feedback from our users.  Please feel free to
> email me directly at vfrese@tridia.com.  Thanks!

Probably exactly none of us wants a windows client.
Many probably _can't_ trade in the client they're using now for some other 
because they rely on special features specific to that client.

We already have various clients with special features that are 
non-negotiable.
We connect from box to box using all manner of clients and terminals, in all 
manner of combinations and chains too that are also non-negotiable.
Aside from the various windows & mac & java telnet/ssh/facetwin clients 
there are linux/freebsd/sco/solaris/etc consoles, xterm/rxvt on all of same 
plus things like cygwin, thin-clients with built-in xterms and telnet/ssh 
clients, dialup & serial access using, again, numerous special purpose win & 
mac clients, unix consoles, hardware dumb serial terminals, unix cu or xc or 
minicom or Century's Term (via any of the clients mentioned so far), and add 
to all that, session management apps like gnu screen and sco mscreen which 
can be used with all of the above.
I even telnet and ssh from my Treo600 and Treo650 palmos pda phone!

All of these can be, and are, used in all manner of combinations.
So far, DV is useful because it doesn't care how you got your tty or what 
client, or chain of clients you are using to get there.
Same goes for ttysnoop on linux and "watch" on freebsd.

Why in the world would anyone give up this flexability? Answer: we won't.
ttysnoop & watch, even though they are bare bones simple compared to dv, 
would be more useful to me than an even more featurefull dv that was only 
useable from a particular client (even if it was say, a java client that 
could run on several platforms). And in any event, since the dv client would 
probably have to take the place of the other terminal emulator, it's a flat 
out no-go just for that reason.

I use special features and integration mechanisms in FacetWin, Anzio (both 
serial and tcp), TUN, Anita, Kermit on a DOS boot floppy with custom macros 
and keyboard files that runs on ancient 4.7 mhz XT's, etc... that are simply 
non-negotiable. Some of the features are not even part of the terminal 
emulation itself, but other factors like how the facetwin client is a freely 
downloadable windows installer. It's licenced on the server by counting 
connections, so I can put a link to the client installer on a login web page 
and the user does not have to bother with licence keys or web page passwords 
and I don't have to worry about illegally redistributing software. Not to 
mention how facetwin is the only client that doesn't waste sco seat licences 
and that can be prohibitively expensive to live without. Issues like that 
must abound and that's just one of many other examples that just I myself 
have. Add up the interesting things everyone else must be doing and it's 
surely laughable to expect to be able to say "oh just use this client 
instead".

Brian K. White  --  brian@aljex.com  --  http://www.aljex.com/bkw/
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