386's vs. Suns.

[Karl Berry.]

I also recently wanted to buy a machine for my home,
to do development work on. When I started looking,
I did not even know that any form of Unix ran on 386's,
so I wasn't even thinking of them!

Sun's prices on peripherals were outrageous. The best
thing I could do from them was buy a diskless 3/80,
and get a disk and tape from a third party vendor (most
of whom I talked to were very helpful). 

The problem with that was (other than price), maintenance.
Although one person claimed that ``there are plenty
of places'' that do maintenance on Suns, and he is probably
right, the only place I found in the Boston area (where I am)
was not much cheaper than Sun's prices.

So. Another alternative: get a used Sun. Some kind soul
posted about ten places to sun-spots, and after much calling,
I found some pretty good prices. But the places that sell
the used hardware can't sell the software!

Sun has to sell you the software. And they make
it very difficult for you to buy *just* the software.
They don't have a part number. They gave us the runaround
about which office to call, and none of the people
who said they would call back ever did. The sales rep
was extremely painful to deal with. Their attitude,
as much as their prices, turned me off. But, in the end,
I would probably still have gotten something, but
when I was ready to order, they absolutely refused
to sell me the software.

The next day I learned 386's can run Unix (although only
system V (although I've heard rumours that Intel has
ported to Mach to the 386)). I am now about to get
a 20MHz CPU with an 11ms disk and an extremely
high resolution monitor (1600x1200 or some such; the Suns
I've been working on are 1152x900), for a few hundred more than
a used 3/50 plus all the Sun peripherals.

I can't say it's my dream system. But I do not
have the extra $$$ it would have taken to get
the equivalent Sun.

karl at umb.edu    ...!harvard!umb!karl