wanted: Sun 386 Workstation (Road Runner) info

[Robert Claeson]

In article <10928 at jade.BBN.COM>, mlandau at bbn.com (Matt Landau) writes:

[Comments on the new features in SunOS 4.0 deleted]

[Comments on improvements in the user interface deleted]

> 	- The automatic installation and EZ Unix stuff are still a little
> 	  shaky in beta test.  In particular, there's not enough attention
> 	  (in my opinion) paid to 386i's that have to coexist on existing YP
> 	  networks with Sun 3's, and to machines that live on the Internet.
> 	  I can understand this, since Sun is trying to sell Roadrunners
> 	  into a different market segment,

	[stuff deleted]

> What do I really think about the Sun 386i?  I like it.  A lot.  It's about
> the only machine I can imagine wanting to buy for my home.  If I were 
> still doing consulting, I could easily recommend it to lots of people.  

> It would be a really nice software development environment, for other Suns
> or for PC's.

> It would be a nice financial analyst's machine

> And of course it's a Sun, so it's nice for DTP, CAD, and all those other
> uninteresting things that non-hackers do with their Suns now :-)

The question still remains: who will *really* buy a Sun 386i?

It is too expensive for those who are mainly looking for a faster PC.
Those who already have Sun's have a lot of software invested in Sun-3
and/or Sun-4 software, and would probably not like to invest a lot of
money in the same software for the 386i architecture. A 386i is
somewhat faster than a Sun-3, but not quite as fast as a Sun-4.
And there's a lot more software out there for the Sun-3 series of
workstations.

So, what customers do Sun think will buy 386i's, and what customers
think they will buy a 386i?