Used suns...

[Jay Batson]

Just a couple of questions - it's option exploring time for me.

1)  Does anybody sell their used Suns when they buy newer Suns/other
    equipment or when they close their doors, or do they all simply get
    moved to the "old equipment to keep around" room?

2)  Last time you knew of one getting sold, what model was it and what
    did it go for?  I've worked where we've had and sold other, fairly major
    brand super-micro's before, and do Sun's depreciate as fast as other
    equipment does?

3)  Has anybody who bought a used Sun had difficulties getting new
    OS releases and other occasionally necessary assistance from
    Sun because you didn't buy the box from them?  What has been
    the cost of 'software maintenance' (i.e. the program you have
    to be on to get new OS releases), vs. the cost of simply paying
    for a new release every year or two when the need becomes overwhelming?

4)  I've only had a small! amount of time to work on Suns, but what I
    did do I loved.  I've never looked at the hardware configuations
    like serial ports, etc. though.  What do you get on the backplane
    of the system, e.g. serial/parallel ports and #, & could you
    hang an ascii terminal off one of them?  I could use a summary
    of the model numbers, and what distinguished them from the next,
    more 'glorious' models, along with as objective, factual comparison
    of performance between them as possible if you can say.  (Guy
    Harris - are you reading this???)

5)  What configuration would be reasonable for a stand alone system?
    I've seen the workstation hooked to a small box containing
    fuji disc and streamer.  I assume this is the way to configure it.
    What are the inherent limitations in this kind of setup given the
    way Sun designed it?

6)  What are the deadly problems to watch out for on the older boxes,
    and how many of these were really OS bugs that are fixed if you
    get a current release?  The primary use will be C applications
    development, with non-sun targets (e.g. law office software
    for other, small UNIX based systems using ascii terminals).

7)  I _do_ have occasion to need to use DOS stuff, and I'm going to
    have to deal with that at the same time.  Certainly, a small
    clone might be the best bet, but I'd like some comments
    on Sun's DOS co-processor board, and running DOS as a process;
    e.g. what are the "compatibility" limitations, how interested is
    Sun in making it work, does 'lotus' run, etc, cost of the board
    and DOS from Sun or used.

8)  Anybody out there have any boxes they plan on selling in the next
    few months???  Of course, I'll read responses to 1) - 7) from
    people who do have one to sell with an appropriately skeptical eye.

All help appreciated.  Please excuse the 'wizards' group choice - I know
I should have posted it to net.wanted, but this is really as much as
a fact-finding posting as an offer to buy, and 'wizards' are as
likely as anybody to know the answers to this.  I'm still exploring
alternatives for an anticipated project.  Thanks in advance.

--------

"Stop it!! Stop it now.  This is getting silly again, and this silliness
has _got_ to stop.  Go on to the next sketch.  Go on.  Turn this camera o    "

Jay Batson
       ihnp4!onecom!\
                     isis!jay
seismo!{hao,nbires}!/