Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!rice!sun-spots-request From: bob@allosaur.cis.ohio-state.edu (Bob Sutterfield) Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun Subject: Re: Comments (flame) about lack of 3/50 memory upgrade Message-ID: <8811172135.AA00469@allosaur.cis.ohio-state.edu> Date: 1 Dec 88 06:38:29 GMT References: <2153@kalliope.rice.edu> Sender: usenet@rice.edu Organization: Rice University, Houston, Texas Lines: 33 Approved: Sun-Spots@rice.edu Original-Date: Thu, 17 Nov 88 16:35:38 EST X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 7, Issue 30, message 5 of 12 X-Issue-Reference: v7n15 In article <2153@kalliope.rice.edu> bernhold@qtp.ufl.edu (David Bernhold) writes: >What we want is "upgradable" hardware - not forced obselesence (sp?). Come on now, we all knew that the 3/50 was unexpandable when we bought it - the only thing that could be done to improve it was to install a MC68881. It has always been sold as the dirt cheap, bottom of the line, minimalist workstation for people who needed to buy workstations by the truckload, on a budget. It is good for filling a room with happy undergrads banging on their programming assignments. If you wanted color or expansion capacity or other such frills, you bought a 3/110 or a 3/160 or something else, and you paid for it. >Apple was very good about this with their Macintosh's, why can't >other people be? Apple hasn't always been "very good" about this. From the Mac's introduction, and persisting for almost a year, their official policy was that if you even opened up the case you voided the warranty. Remember the temerity of the original memory upgrade sellers? The Mac was intended as an appliance - and who adds features or capacity to their toaster oven? It was originally designed not to be internally expandable, because you could get to everything you really needed via the documented interfaces on the back of the box. Market pressures forced Apple to acknowledge that people were going to expand their Macintoshes, and that the customers considered expansion more important than even their warranty. Even if Sun doesn't ever offer a 3/50 memory upgrade (as is likely), several third-party suppliers are getting into the game. If the price is right, we'd like to upgrade all 230 of our 3/50s. So far, the upgrade is just a little dear for our budget, even though it's still cheaper than trading them all in for 3/60s.