Sparcstation SLC (Sun 4/20) v9n185

[Jim Wildman]

> 3.  ..................If there's anyone out there who uses a
> stand-alone Sun of any type, do you get useful support from Sun, or do
> they only care about large-network customers?

We have a standalone 3/160 that we bought new in 1985.  We have always
paid the hardware maintenance (24 hour swap service, call during regular
business hours) and the software hotline.  While the maintenance seems
high, it has probably more than paid for itself.  We had 3 or 4 bad
monitors in a row, and just recently had to replace our Eagle and XY451.
After running continuously for 5 years, I can't complain about the disk
finally quitting.  The engineers that I've dealt with were well trained
and very knowledgable about the product.  If the hardware failed early in
the day, and we figured out what it was by 3PM or so in the afternoon,
then we've always had the replacement the next morning.  We get all of the
software upgrades in good shape.  My copy of 4.1 showed up before there
was even much discussion on the net about it.  We're not doing major
software developement, so I can't answer about Sun's responsiveness about
bugs and fixes.  I did find and report a bug in one version of Transcript,
that the contact at Sun confirmed.  It was fixed in the last version.  So,
I'm satisfied.