Request for Comments: 386 Unix vs Sun vs HP

[Mike Verstegen]

  [I don't want to start a religious war with this question, but knowing
  how these things can get out of control, I'll keep my fingers crossed.]

We are currently a "mini-computer" based software development organization
using dumb terminals connected to a 3B2/600 running Unix V.3. We have made
the decision to not proceed further on this platform. Hearing the beating
of the networking drum, our next generation of software will be developed
for the network environment. Our application is along the lines of process
control. We have a moderate amount of database queries, but no heavy trans-
action processing. We are not number crunching at all. The only graphics
will be simple block diagrams and color changes on an X interface.

Here is the $64,000 question: Which hardware do we choose? At this point
we are considering Sun, HP, and [34]86 PCs (along with X-terminals where
appropriate).

Here are some of the things I've been thinking about each:
PCs: I feel comfortable with the PC approach because I always have an
     alternative -- multiple suppliers of hardware and OS software (ISC,
     SCO, Esix). Accessories from the DOS based market are now available
     with Unix dreivers such as fax boards, (Dialogic) telephone interface
     boards, etc.. We have one 386 with ISC 2.0.2 Unix and X/Motif and our
     application does not seem require any performance that the the 386
     cannot provide. On the negative side, major SW vendors (Lotus, IDE,
     etc.) tend to focus on the Sun & HP platforms first and the PC Unix
     versions are way on the back burner (if they are considered at all).

Sun: I don't know much about Sun. I've been to a couple trade shows and seen
     various applications on them. I feel that SunOS is a (somewhat) unique
     version of Unix and (since were a System V house) we may have problems
     porting. After the great V.4 Unix unification, this should be a
     non-issue, but when will Sun come out with V.4? When talking to the
     local Sun people at shows, we normally get cut off by one of their
     major (defense contractor) customers. Being small, what can I expect
     of Sun's after sale support if I have difficulty before sale? (I don't
     want to blame them -- that's a real customer that they have to keep
     happy, I realize that.)

HP:  I know equally little about HP. I feel comfortable with HP after years
     of buying test equipment from them. Some drawbacks are their direction
     of OSF/1 (and we're designing for V.4) and the inference that their 
     maintenance support is expensive ($350/month/machine vs $75 for Sun -
     reference Unix Today 10/1/90 p75) and for a small company, that's a
     lot of money.

I can buy a complete stand-alone PC for $5,000 (Dell 325, Color with V.3).
For the same money, I can get a monochrome diskless station from Sun. I
don't think I can get anything from HP at that price. Again, being a small
company, the price consideration is very important, but I don't want to
overlook the "hidden costs" of ownership when making this decision --
maintenance support, software upgrades, etc. Additionally, third party
software packages appear to be cheaper on the PC and I can "soup up" a
486/33 MHz to get improved performance if needed.

Another consideration is our need to ship our vertically integrated system
to both domestic and internation destinations. With PCs there is obviously
no problem. HP has worldwide service available and we can ship in to those
territories directly. I don't know how Sun handles U.S. customers shipping
to foreign countries (some companies strictly prohibit shipping equipment
purchased in the US to foreign locations to let their foreign representatives
extract a premium price and they don't want to step on that profit.)

If it sounds like I'm biased toward the PC, it is only because we bought
one system for testing in the lab so I have some degree of familiarity with
it. My request of those of you interested in responding is to share your
experiences, particularly those of you in a mixed Sun, HP, and PC environment.

Please don't start a flood of postings on the "religious" issues of UI vs
OSF, or SPARC vs Motorola vs Intel -- I'll be glad to receive mail on those
topics privately. I also welcome mail from Sun, HP, etc as long as you
identify yourself as a such, but I am really looking for someone who has
a real world system with various vendors equipment to provide objective
comments.

Though I've crossposted this to the sun, hp and sv386 groups, please
post follow ups to comp.unix.questions if you feel your comments are
of general interest, or more likely send them directly to me and I'll
summarize if there is significant interest.

Thanks in advance for whatever comments you care to share.

Mike
--
Mike Verstegen          Domain Systems, Inc           Voice +1 407 686-7911
..!uunet!comtst!mdv     5840 Corporate Way #100       Fax   +1 407 478-2542
mdv at domain.com          West Palm Beach, FL 33407