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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