cavrak@uvm-gen.UUCP (Steve Cavrak,113 Waterman,6561483,) (06/11/89)
> We are in the process of considering the purchase of workstations for > a small lab in our Computer Science Department. Our proposed > configuration calls for 8 workstations (8Mb RAM, 200+Mb disk, large > monochrome display) and a server. > As a "generic" machine, the Macintosh is probably a better bet --- 1. when they're "obsolete" as unix workstation, they can be recycled as "plain" Macintosh's and sold to "ordinary people". There is a strong desktop publishing market --- you could even "donate" them to the library or the alumni office. 2. even when they are NOT obsolete, they can be used in both the A/UX environment and the Macintosh enviornment. This gives a nice degree of flexibility. E.g. an alternative use for the machines during the summer when C programs are not being reinvented, e.g. hypercard development for language courses, etc. 3. Forget the monochrome, put the color on them. 4. Definitely network the machines, definitely ethernet them. But keep an 80 mbyte disk on board. Steve
grunwald@flute.cs.uiuc.edu (Dirk Grunwald) (06/12/89)
In article <1209@uvm-gen.UUCP> cavrak@uvm-gen.UUCP (Steve Cavrak,113 Waterman,6561483,) writes:
1. when they're "obsolete" as unix workstation, they can be recycled
as "plain" Macintosh's and sold to "ordinary people". There is
I hate to tell you, but if you've ever used the apple UNIX, you'd know that
it's *already* obsolete. If you're looking for a color box that runs UNIX
*and* runs standard micro software, go for a '386 box, or a Sun-386i instead.
We have several Apple-IIx's running AU/X, and it's *awful*. The compiler
sucks and the machine is basically slow.
--
Dirk Grunwald -- Univ. of Illinois (grunwald@flute.cs.uiuc.edu)kyriazis@rpics (George Kyriazis) (06/13/89)
In article <1209@uvm-gen.UUCP> cavrak@uvm-gen.UUCP (Steve Cavrak,113 Waterman,6561483,) writes: > >As a "generic" machine, the Macintosh is probably a better bet --- > ... >2. even when they are NOT obsolete, they can be used in both the A/UX > environment and the Macintosh enviornment. This gives a nice degree... > But you CANNOT use Mac's running A/UX! Believe me, I tried! George Kyriazis kyriazis@turing.cs.rpi.edu kyriazis@rdrc.rpi.edu ------------------------------
russ@prism.gatech.EDU (Russell Shackelford) (06/15/89)
In article <1209@uvm-gen.UUCP>, cavrak@uvm-gen.UUCP (Steve Cavrak,113 Waterman,6561483,) writes: > > We are in the process of considering the purchase of workstations for > > a small lab in our Computer Science Department. Our proposed > > configuration calls for 8 workstations (8Mb RAM, 200+Mb disk, large > > monochrome display) and a server. > > As a "generic" machine, the Macintosh is probably a better bet --- well, i dunno what the experience of other folks has been, but at Georgia Tech people have gotten some measure of exerience with all three of the choices (Mac, Next, Sun) mentioned in the original post. from what i've heard..... MAC AUX: there's a couple labs full of those things and they mainly keep everybody mad as hell. trouble getting it work with the net. trouble with the compilers. things get fixed (by local sweat, not apple's) but in the process they make everybody nuts. the prez had some scheme to get a couple truckloads of the things. dunno what he's gonna do, but everybody around here wanted to tell him to forget it.... the faculty who have the things in their offices mainly use them as paper weights will waiting for the required permission to clean the alleged-unix off the disk so they can actually use the things for something... Next: couple of dozen or so scattered about. people seem to think they're pretty ok, 'specially the sexier things.... but they're buggy... getting better... but still buggy.... and there's no software..... so nobody's really excited... but then again, nobody is mad either.... people expect this sort of thing from new products.... Sun's: every CS faculty (almost) has got one on his/her desk. they use'm everyday and nobody's mad.... the only fly in the ointment: they started to check out alt sources of serv. contracts cause they were spending more than they thought reasonable on the things... does anybody else know of a shop that's used all 3? -- Russell Shackelford School of Information and Computer Science Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332 russ@prism.gatech.edu (404) 834-4759