Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!me!radio!helios!stefan From: stefan@helios.toronto.edu (Stefan Mochnacki) Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions Subject: Re: wanted: Sun 386 Workstation (Road Runner) info Keywords: sun 386 Roadrunner Message-ID: <561@helios.toronto.edu> Date: 11 May 88 16:52:46 GMT References: <148@gsg.UUCP> <10928@jade.BBN.COM> <226@pvab.UUCP> <10781@steinmetz.ge.com> Reply-To: stefan@helios.UUCP (Stefan Mochnacki) Organization: University of Toronto Physics/Astronomy Computing Consortium Lines: 28 Some people are asking "Who will buy the Sun 386i ?" In this moderately- sized Astronomy Department (about 22 faculty ...) we are likely to buy THREE right away. We have 3 Sun-3 100-series machines already, and direct access to several others including a Sun 4. However, many of us have PC's, particularly portable ones or desktops kept at home, and the 386i provides a fusion of the PC and SUN / UNIX worlds very nicely, as well as providing computing power for our students via terminals connected to terminal servers. As I've said before on a different newsgroup, the Sun 386i is competitively priced when compared with other 386 systems because it includes many features which are necessary in a distributed academic environment but which have to be bought separately as add-ons to "street-market" PC's. Furthermore, the UNIX situation for 386 PC's is messy because there are so many hardware "standards" (sic) which no generic offering of UNIX can support. << There's a great opportunity for someone to start up a new software company: a Drivers Galore factory ! There's a fortune to be made writing drivers for all the display adapters and disk controllers on the market which generic offerings of UNIX and OS/2 cannot hope to support ...>>. Another aside : there are discounted marketing channels for Suns and many organizations can buy Suns with deep discounts. [ I have no connection with Sun Microsystems. Opinions are my own ] -- Stefan W. Mochnacki INTERNET - stefan@helios.physics.toronto.edu Astronomy, U. Toronto UUCP - {uunet,pyramid}!utai!helios!stefan +1 (416) 884-9562 BITNET - mochnacki@utorphys.bitnet