Examination of a Linux Gui, w/color commentary

[bmcculley at rcn.com]

 Mark Komarinski wrote:
>
>> > Probe the network for what other kinds of systems are out
there?  What
>> > is he smoking?
>> 
>> I assume from this comment that you don't like the idea of
probing the
>> LAN for equipment inventory info.  This seems to have
become a standard
>> administrative techniques especially for network equipment.
> 
>Having each client probe each other machine for every
protocol and
>offering it has is just way too chatty.
>

Aw come on.  You're assuming a brain-dead implementation
design to argue a useful feature is too costly.

You don't probe every machine for every protocol and service
it offers, you only look for the ones you care about.  If the
service isn't there you can't connect, so what's it cost, a
TCP SYN and a NAK?  At 100mbps (even my lame home net is there
now) that probably costs about six inches of Grace Hopper's
ruler, and the interrupt service on a 2GHz desktop won't be
much more - even a 486 wouldn't stumble enough for the
interactive user to notice.  So the only systems that pay a
price are the ones running shared printer services, duh that's
why they're there, and if you still have a 10mbps network
that's so laden that this miniscule added traffic breaks the
camel's back, invest the week's coffee budget and upgrade it
to 100.

Make the user work harder so the machines don't have to? 
Wrong millenium thinking, guy!
(thanks, I feel much better now :-)

-Bruce McCulley