*BSD News Article 3367


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Xref: sserve comp.unix.wizards:26446 comp.unix.bsd:3411
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards,comp.unix.bsd
Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!constellation!apple!agate!tfs.com!tfs.com!paigen
From: paigen@tfs.com (David Paigen)
Subject: Re: Have $8000, what to buy?
Message-ID: <1992Aug11.164928.2658@tfs.com>
Organization: TRW Financial Systems
References: <RG.92Aug10111713@nymph.msel.unh.edu>
Distribution: comp
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 1992 16:49:28 GMT
Lines: 45

rg@msel.unh.edu (Roger Gonzalez) writes:

>I want a Unix machine.  Now.

>I want BSD features.  I want full networking.  I want X11R5.  I want color.  I
>want at least 1.2Gb of disk, and 16Mb of memory.  I have $8000, and won't be
>able to add much more for at least a year.

>What should I buy?  Sparc IPC?  Iris Indigo?  A HP?  A PC (shudder) with BSDI?
>A NeXT?  A Mac with A/UX?  I only know that I can pick up an IPC for about
>$5000 after discount, and then use $3000 for buying peripherals.  Who else has
>deals like that?

After having spent 5 years contracting on almost every workstation class
unix platform, I'll add my $0.02 here.

Stay away from A/UX.  It is slow (or used to be) and not really BSD.  Ditto
for the NeXT, a flashy machine for users, an "insanity machine" for
seasoned unix people.  Doesn't even pretend to be real unix.  HP-UX is
ok, although many people will turn their nose up at it.  How is the
bang for the buck with HP?  (A good company, by the way).  Note that
HP-UX is not BSD.  The Iris line is great for doing graphics, but it is
a dog for anything else.  Unix is ok, but the machine is optimized for
graphics and not much else.  SunOS is so bloated these days that the
low end sun workstations are slower than 386s.  Sometimes much slower.
I had to work on a sun with only 8 megs once, clicking on an iconified
X window caused 5+ seconds of thrashing before the window expanded.

As much maligned as the PC is (with good reason), it gives the best bang
for the buck.  $2K will buy you a 486/50 (at least here in silicon
valley).  Another $2K for a big monitor and a big disk leaves you $4K
to hang the kitchen sink off of it.  Add a SoundBlaster.  Add an X-10
interface.  Add analog<=>digital converters.  Add an NTSC board.  Plus,
you would get source to your OS.

Sun is my second choice.  With a budget of $20K or more it would be my
first choice.  But not when spending less than $10K.  I wouldn't buy
any of the other machines you mentioned even with someone else's money.

But that is only an opinion.

----------------------->"Lay on, McDuff,    14th c. ideals in a 21st c. world
David Paigen            and damn'd be he        N: PLO Bush IRA CIA KKK
TRW Financial Systems   who first cries,        S: terrorism pipe bomb kill
paigen@tfs.com          'hold, enough!'"        A: assasination maim