Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (4020 mails)

[Allen <goreBOFH@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 22 Oct 2004, Theo v. Werkhoven wrote:

> Wed, 13 Oct 2004, by gorebofh@xxxxxxxxxxx:
> [..]
> > Why is an Xterm called that after a Terminal when a Terminal is where
> > something ends.... What were they thinking calling it that. Isn't it
> > properly called a console? Or what? What do you call a box that's only
> > using a command line, like run level 3....That's not a Terminal is it? I
> >  have no idea what to call these things, because I've been told Terminal is
> > where something ends, so it would be console, but... OK I've confused
> > myself.... I think I'm going to run too the store and get a pack of smokes
> > heh. 
> > 
> > So what is a Terminal, and what is a console? Someone help! ;)
> 
> A bit late, but an answer I haven't seen yet.
> Terminal comes from the Latin Terminus, meaning 'boundery' or
> 'border', which is exactly what it is: a boundery between human-
> and machine logic.
> A terminal can be any place where {users} log in and work on a
> time-sharing system.
> 
> "To console" means 'support', 'sustain'. Also a well chosen word for
> its purpose, as a special terminal for the capo-di-capi I think.
> 
> From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (13 Mar 01) [foldoc]:
> 
>   console
>   
>      1. The operator's station of a {mainframe}.  In times past,
>      this was a privileged location that conveyed godlike powers to
>      anyone with fingers on its keys.  Under {Unix} and other
>      modern {time-sharing} {operating system}s, such privileges are
>      guarded by passwords instead, and the console is just the
>      {tty} the system was booted from.  Some of the mystique
>      remains, however, and it is traditional for {sysadmin}s to
>      post urgent messages to all users from the console (on Unix,
>      /dev/console).
>   
>      2. On {microcomputer} {Unix} boxes, the main screen and
>      keyboard (as opposed to character-only terminals talking to a
>      {serial port}).  Typically only the console can do real
>      graphics or run {X}.  See also {CTY}.

>From what I'm reading, you can pretty much call any Linux or UNIX machine 
a terminal or Console, as you're using the keyboard too human thing in the 
first part of this, or a cnosole, since you can run X on it then right?