What should GNU run on (was Re: wha

[Mitchel Wyle]

jeffrey at algor2.UUCP (Jeffrey Kegler) writes:
>Aritomo Shinozaki (ari at kolmogorov.physics.uiuc.edu) writes:
>>Let's assume I start with "your average Joe" PC with a nice fast 386,
>I have a 386 PC with a Mono BLIT, IWS card, Intel S5R3.2, 380MB disk,
>5MB memory (not enough, I know).  By the time I got all this, yes, I
>could have had a Sun.  So why didn't I get a Sun?

>1)  Since this is my own money, I would like some resale value for
>when I upgrade.  Sun is going to come out with a fancy new box next
>year and then where will you be?  Someone will buy my 386 to run Lotus

Suns keep their resale value better than AT clones.  Look at the prices
in "The Sun Observer" or the other Sun rags.  People who use Suns at
work want one at home; since prices are dropping this lust results in a
very brisk resale market.

>2)  Service alternatives.  You can get hardware for a 386 serviced all
>over the place.  You know how much clout the owner of one machine has
>with Sun?

No one ever buys Sun service for his machine at home.  There are plenty
of 24-Hour board turn-around services and 3rd party Sun services.

>3) Prices.  When I want to find the cost of an add-on, I check the ads
>in PC Magazine, etc.  Sun's price list is secret.  You wonder why?

Again, no one in his right mind buys Sun add-ons.  You buy 3rd party.
You can admittedly get better deals on generic Intel boxes.  Decisions
about which machine to buy are religious; however, you have to admit
that dbxtool is neato.  On the other hand, you could place a value (how
much you're willing to pay) to run the same software at home as you run
at work, and how much a premium you're willing to pay for SunOS instead
of 386ix or Xenix-386, or whatever.

>Show me I'm wrong.)  For example, I have a 60M cartridge drive.

I always thought people who run Suns at home backup via SLIP on Exabyte
2.3 Gig 8 mm cartridges. :-)  60M is out; 2.3G is in.

>The basic workstation setup is priced to look competitive with the PC
>equivalent, but move beyond it and you get the sort of stuff that
>gives monopoly pricing a bad name.

This statement is probably true, but again you're ignoring 3rd parties
in one situation (Sun) while expounding on them in the other situation
(generic 386 box).

>4) Futures.  Sun controls your upgrade path if you buy from them.
>They want you to buy a brand new box.  In the PC market hundreds of
>vendors are falling over each other to enable you to upgrade.

Upgrading, add-ons, software, etc. are better in the PC market.  You are
absolutely correct.  However (last time I'll mention it, really!) there
are 3rd party Sun vendors.

>=>      The real difference, at this point, is the distribution
>=> channel.  If the predominant distribution channel is through
>=> retailers, it's a personal computer.  If the predominant
>=> distribution channel is through the manufacturer's sales reps, it's
>=> a workstation.  The technology is irrelevant.

Correct.

>The workstation distribution channel is much less competitive and much
>more expensive than the PC one.  Those overheads have to be paid for
>somehow, and noone should be fooled by the fact that one specific
>configuration is a few bucks cheaper.

Prepare yourself for a little shock.  Workstations are going to have a
price war.  HP bought Apollo.  Sun slashed prices of the 386i and may
do so for the Sparcstation 1.  NeXT is going to be on the ropes soon.
Other (biggies) are coming.  Let's not mentioni DEC, Iris, Titan, MIPS,
or DG (oh well, I did :-).   They are all going to be dropping prices
when big (300 or more station) customers start buying low-bidder to run
vanilla SysVr4 and X.

>If you buy them one at a time, Sun really does not want your business.
>They cannot support the sales force on onesy-twosies.  It is just a
>fact of life and not just a matter of attitude.  Better to realize that
>before you buy than after.

I won't mention 3rd parties again (oops!) :-)  Suns-at-home or onesies
(great word, Jeff)  are Sun religeous zealots who love their machines at
work and want to be "true believers" at home, too.

>Jeffrey Kegler, Independent UNIX Consultant, Algorists, Inc.

Great name for a band:  "The Algorithmics."

-Mitchell F. Wyle
Institut fuer Informationssysteme         wyle at inf.ethz.ch 
ETH Zentrum / 8092 Zurich, Switzerland    +41 1 256 5237