*BSD News Article 59221


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From: The Notorious B.S.D. (The Notorious B.S.D.)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc
Subject: Re: ISP hardware/software choices (performance comparison)
Date: Wed, 10 Jan 1996 08:13:07 GMT
Organization: Voicenet - Internet Access - (215)674-9290
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aad@nwnet.net (Anthony D'Atri) wrote:


>>Since SunOS is not supported by the new UltraSparcs

>Uh, yes it is.  What do you think they run?  MS-DOS?  OS/360?  CTSS?

No! They'll run that piece-of-shit Solaris, NOT SunOS. That greasy pig
is Sun's (your) future!

>I've read several claims that SunOS on x86 machines is relatively hungrier
>and slower than other Unices on the same hardware.

yeah, pay more. get less. Sun's motto, I believe.

>>All of the systems are configured with 64Megs of RAM, 4.3 gig Hds, some
>>graphics card (not very important for servers), and no monitors.
>...
>>(1) Am I correct for the most part, or am I making some fatal mistakes?

>I can see a few:

>o You only consider SPARC machines from Sun.  You might find that considering
>  machines from Axil, Tatung, or Integrix would change the cost significantly.

>o You probably aren't considering discounts from Sun (and probabl IBM, too)

>o You're throwing in framebuffers that are almost certainly not comparable.
>  For a network-services machine, you don't need *any* graphics device for
>  a Sun, at least.  The graphics hardware in Suns is generally a much different
>  beast from the price-point cheap stuff in an MS-DOS-market machine. 

agreed. Sun graphics are good. Not better than the best stuff in the
Intel World, and certainly MUCH more expensive for what you get, but
good nonetheless.

>The
>  latter rarely can usably support a million pixels, and probably don't offer
>  the speed and acceleration that the Sun card probably does.

huh? RARELY? What are you looking at to support your assertions? The
buy-list for some inner-city middle school?


>MS-DOS machines seem to rarely be sold with decent
>  monitors. 

really????

> I rarely see one as large as 17", and they're almost always
>  spherical, and almost always can't handle even close to 1M pixels without
>  flickering.

c'mon, this is a joke. Trinitron monitors abound in the PC world. Most
mid-line machines from big mail-order vendors are sold with
rock-steady 17'' monitors. Many are Trinitron. Almost all are
excellent quality.

> I don't think Sun sells anything smaller than 17" now, and I
>  believe that they only sell cylindrical Sonys doing at least 1152x900.
>  Again, this is a different beast from an MS-DOS monitor, so's it's gonna
>  cost more.  

yeah, and this is (HONESTLY) what you're paying for:

The sun 20'' Trinitron comes with a REMOTE CONTROL (I'm NOT kidding!)
that allows you to change brightness, contrast, etc.. from 2-3 feet
away! WOW! Amaze your friends! This is a ridiculous example of the
over-engineered Sun shit that you pay HUGE premiums to get.

By the way, my first experience with Sun hardware was with an old Sun
4 that featured the most spherical blurry TV set that you ever wanted
to look at. My main machine at the time was an Apple Macintosh driving
a beautifully crisp 20'' Trinitron-based RasterOps.

In this vain I welcome Sun to high-performance graphics. Better late
than never, but HARDLY the first.