request for info on at&t 7300 unix pc

[Peter Collins]

In article <5466 at decwrl.DEC.COM>, draper at tallis.dec.com writes:
> 
> i was at a computer show saturday ---- vendor had an at&t 7300.
> 
> 	system v release 2 unix (upgrade to release 3 available at no
> 		additional cost)

Beware, what att calls release 3 for the 7300 is still SysV.2, just upgraded
to fix some earlier bugs. So don't expect rfs, streams, etc. There
are a lot of Berkleyism such as shared libraries (not SysV.3 version)
and tcp/ip support that you do get.

> this all for $2500.  the people at the table were not too knowledgable.
> for example, they didn't know whether this was a source or binary-only 
> license.  this was also a "base" system without the utilities package 
> (available for another $250) and they didn't know what functionality 
> the package included.  unix documentation was also another $250, and they
> didn't know what that included either.

Its a binary license. The base system does NOT include vi, nroff or a c 
compiler. To get vi you'll need the advanced editor package, for nroff
the document preparation package, for c the development package. Each
is $300-$500, so the nickel and dime you to get a full unix. Expect to
pay 3 to 4 times what a complete Xenix package would cost on an AT before
you get everything you need.

> 
> i'm thinking of a system for one or two person software-developement and
> a little text formatting thrown in on the side. (and *of course* news
> and mail :-)  has anyone used the 7300 in such an environment, or for that
> matter in any environment, and wish to comment?  i'd appreciate any and
> all information.
> 
We use one 7300 to pick up news and mail from our feed. It also supports
one programmer with no problems. Basically we like the machine and wish
that ATT would support it more aggressively especially for small OEMS.
Otherwise we tend to have one 7300 per programmer.

We have had problems shipping the units though. Almost everytime we
ship a unit something breaks. We've had two video failures and several
disks that simply stopped working (could seek to cyl. 0). We were careful
to park the disk heads and pack the units properly to no avail.

I am interested in other report of reliability/shipping problems with
7300's and 3b1's. (mail and I'll summarize under net.micro.att)

Peter
( ..ucbvax!arizona!catuc!peter )