Re: MS NT "Workstation" vs. "Server"

Robert S. Thau (rst@ai.mit.edu)
Mon, 9 Sep 1996 12:28:43 -0400


Okay, well, the code can still be the same here with no dishonesty.

#ifdef Workstation
#define TIME_SLICE 1
#else
#define TIME_SLICE 10
#endif

Well, to be completely anal-retentive about this --- it isn't just
that the two products are compiled from the same source; the object
code is identical as well. Hence, no #ifdefs.

(To bend over backwards in fairness to Microsoft, even O'Reilly
admits that the "product code" registry entry does in fact control
some boot-time system tuning parameters, along the lines mentioned in
the Mickeysoft literature. However, this seems to make very little
difference in practice --- with either parameter set, a web server
running on adequate hardware can easily saturate a T1; the O'Reilly
folks claim further that some of the "server optimizations" may make
things *worse* for web servers which do lots of CGI.

Still, as Phill H-B points out, Unix workstation vendors have been
screwing their customers like this for *years*, selling "two-user
licenses" and the like --- the main difference between that and the
NT ten-connection choke is that the latter is blatantly directed
at discouraging use of a competitor's product, and the saccharaine
claims which no Unix vendor ever made that the restrictions are being
imposed "for the users' own good").

rst