cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) (05/06/88)
[Some scurrilous remarks that demand a response :-)] ** Please don fireproof clothing now ... ** In article <926@elmgate.UUCP> jdg@aurora.UUCP (Jeff Gortatowsky) writes: > Don't *always* listen to Chuck. ... No, you should never take the words or advice of one person as your sole source of information. However... > ... Sun charges what it does not only to > cover thier considerabe technology and research, but to keep > workstations out of the "consumer" realm. ... This is presumptuous and borders on slander. Sun charges what it does because : a) The Sun price is often the best cost/performance price on CPUs anywhere. b) It pays my salary and overhead. c) We sell everything we can make and there is no incentive to lower prices other than "a" above. You will note that both Scott McNealy and Bill Joy have said publically that their goal is to get UNIX workstations to the most number of people. > ... Further it appears that > Sun would give away CPU's as long as you buy a disk sub-system from > them. Check out the price sheet some time. The disk prices are > horrible when you look at the cost of an SCSI bare drive and a > SCSI->ST506 adaptor. ESDI I'm not so sure of. ... And guess what ? The only part of the 141 meg "shoebox" that Sun sells, that is made by Sun, is the casework! Wow you mean disk drive makers selling into our market can undercut us? You bet they can, they are selling us the disks too. > ... Imagine my surprise > to find out I could get a 3/50 4meg CPU for *less* than the minimum > 142meg shoebox with WangTek tape drive! And here in my part of Kodak > we have more Suns than people to operate them, so I know of what I > speak(we use Suns (not Sun-4) in our product)! Now maybe things have > changed....but I doubt it. Basically, it would cost Kodak exactly as much to sell shoeboxes as it does Sun. There is no financial advantage to remarketing drives, ever wonder why Commodore doesn't sell them in the US? You can't compete against Seagate, and Seagate is competing against MiniScribe et al so they are always driving the price down. When we sell a disk drive we install it, service it and swap it out if it breaks. If you are sophisticated to build your own shoe boxes you don't need us. So don't bother us ok? ** Ok that aside ... ** > Look CBM. I don't expect a 16.67 no-wait-state 1megapixel by 8bit machine > running 4.3 + X11 with a 140mb disk for under $2000. But how about a > 14.32mz 020 with a 764x512x5 (or 6) with a 50meg ST506 disk and VM kickstart > for ~$2500-$3000? Don't go after Sun and ilk. Let them tantilize > us at work, while we laugh and enjoy KS at home. > Oh how I'd have paid that extra 100-150 bucks for at least process protection > on my A-1000 (vintage 10/85)! Listen up CBM! A reasonable suggestion. I said as much to them when the rumors of a UNIX machine first appeared. Basically, there are a lot of people crowding into the 'personal' UNIX workstation market and in a crowded situation such as that, companies with poor or marginal brand name recognition such as Atari or Commodore tend to get squeezed out. Whereas sticking with AmigaDOS or a protected mode version of the same would allow them to distinguish them selves with being able to compile and run UNIX programs, but you only need 1 Meg of RAM and 20Meg of hard disk space. [Yes, there is a lot of work to get from here to there but not much more than that which is required to get from no UNIX to full UNIX support.] --Chuck McManis uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: cmcmanis ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.
richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton) (05/06/88)
In article <52163@sun.uucp> cmcmanis@sun.UUCP (Chuck McManis) writes: >In article <926@elmgate.UUCP> jdg@aurora.UUCP (Jeff Gortatowsky) writes: >> Don't *always* listen to Chuck. ... > >No, you should never take the words or advice of one person as your sole >source of information. However... To be perfectly fair, the number of times chuck was wrong is less than the number of times JG was right. The worst thing you can say about chuck is, he is a complete wimp when it comes to spicey food, but so is leo. Dont know what it is about those NoCal boys.... >> ... Sun charges what it does not only to >> cover thier considerabe technology and research, but to keep >> workstations out of the "consumer" realm. ... My god, what paranoia. >This is presumptuous and borders on slander. Sun charges what it does >because : > a) The Sun price is often the best cost/performance price on > CPUs anywhere. .......................... this side of an apollo (they made me do it chuck, they made me do it. you can give her hell next -- noalias went. it really wasn't negotiable richard@gryphon.CTS.COM rutgers!marque!gryphon!richard