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
boone@oce.orst.edu (Jeff Boone) (06/17/89)
In article <836@hydra.gatech.EDU> russ@prism.gatech.EDU (Russell Shackelford) writes: > > does anybody else know of a shop that's used all 3? > (Mac/AUX, NeXT, Sun) Here at Oceanography we have a network of Macs, Suns, and NeXTs. These are my opinions of the machines. NeXT: I have to agree with you that the machine is bug ridden. I foolishly chose to do my Master's (CS) project on the thing and I'm having a heck of a time finding useful information in their WEAK documentation. The box is much slower than we had anticipated. I know there has been a big discussion lately about floating point and integer arithmetic speed and the NeXT seems to fare pretty well, but I'm talking about user response time (UNIX overhead kills). On the plus side, I think the NeXT probably has more potential than either of the other 2 product lines. It just needs time to work out the bugs and get some serious software developed for it. It will be interesting to see what the Canon stock purchase will mean for NeXT. Sun: We have quite a few researches committed to the Sun product line. They are great for graphical displays of huge oceanographic data. There is certainly a lack of productivity software for them besides the couple of very good publishing packages. Ever look at Sun Write, Paint, and Draw? Can you say ugly stuff? Granted their only first generation, but it's pretty poor software. If Sun is planning to put their SparcIntosh onto desktops of anyone other than researchers they need better productivity tools. Mac: AUX is slow and System V based. In its current state it is not very useful. We do look forward to version 2.0 which is supposed to have a front end indistinguishable from the finder (we'll see :-). The Mac has all its strength in the huge software base (isn't that what the say about MS-DOS?). I think Apple has realized that the Mac really can't compete with the other vendors within a workstation environment, it is the cadillac of personal computers :-). Here at oceanogrphy, almost all researchers have both a Sun and a Mac (not running AUX) on their desks. The Sun to crunch data, and the Mac to do everyday kinds of chores. ------------------- These opinions are completely mine. Jeff Boone boone@oce.orst.edu College of Oceanography, Oregon State University