jtn@potomac.ads.com (John T. Nelson) (08/24/88)
I'm sortof kindof thinking about buying a cheap Unix box. Can anyone recommend a stridently good machine? Requirements: 1) Bitmapped screen 2) MUST run 4.3 Berkeley (none of this system V junk). 3) Inexpensive (and built to stay thatway) The Mac II came to mind but fails due to 3 and in part to 2 since I'm hearing negative things coming from knowledgable people about AU/X. One of our people recommended something from a place called Integrated Solutions (?) which supposedly runs a 4.3 port. -- John T. Nelson UUCP: sun!sundc!potomac!jtn Advanced Decision Systems Internet: jtn@potomac.ads.com 1500 Wilson Blvd #512; Arlington, VA 22209-2401 (703) 243-1611 Shar and Enjoy!
brickman@cme-durer.ARPA (Jonathan E. Brickman) (08/26/88)
In article <6831@potomac.ads.com> jtn@potomac.ads.com (John T. Nelson) writes: >I'm sortof kindof thinking about buying a cheap Unix box. > 1) Bitmapped screen > 2) MUST run 4.3 Berkeley (none of this system V junk). > 3) Inexpensive (and built to stay thatway) The least expensive graphics-oriented Unix box with any 4.3 BSD compatibility that I've heard of is the Mac II. A/UX is System V -based, but the Byte review mentioned signals and sockets as a "Berkeley Unix compatibility add-on". In other words, it sounds like the lowest-end BSD-like system around. I personally don't like A/UX very much, because it is not decently integrated with the rest of the Mac environment; however, bang for the buck is very good. The lowest-end system I like in the BSD graphics league is the Sun 3/60, advertised last year with 4 megs RAM, mono 1152 X 900 screen, 18 MHz (I think) 68020, and 70 megs disk, for $6000. Mono screen, without color emulation, means rotten CAD etc., but for something like $1000 you get the Sun 1152 X 900 X 8-out-of-24-bit beauty. If you want more universal compatibility, a Sun mono 386i with most of the above, running a 16 MHz 80386 and 80 megs, is $10,000. ||Jonathan E. Brickman
darin@nova.laic.uucp (Darin Johnson) (08/27/88)
> The lowest-end system I like in the BSD graphics league is > the Sun 3/60, advertised last year with 4 megs RAM, mono 1152 X 900 > screen, 18 MHz (I think) 68020, and 70 megs disk, for $6000. Mono screen, > without color emulation, means rotten CAD etc. Look around or advertise for a Sun 2/xx. I have heard of a few people that made real steals on these. There is a version of SunOS 3.4 for the Sun 2's. Darin Johnson (...pyramid.arpa!leadsv!laic!darin) (...ucbvax!sun!sunncal!leadsv!laic!darin) "All aboard the DOOMED express!"
pt@geovision.uucp (Paul Tomblin) (09/01/88)
I am also looking for a cheap UNIX box. My problem seems to be
that although I want Unix just for myself, everyone prices
software like you are running a data center. Can you get Unix
software and hardware for PC prices?
What about the AT&T Unix PC. Is it a real orphan, or does it work
ok? Unix World has some adds in the back that show it to be
around $1500 - 2000 for 2Mb Ram, 67Mb Hard Disk. Sounds good, but
can anyone tell me about software, expansion hardware, etc.
Thanx in advance.
--
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Paul Tomblin, Department of Redundancy Department
UUCP: nrcaer!cognos!geovision ??
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here aren't necessarily even mine!les@chinet.UUCP (Leslie Mikesell) (09/04/88)
In article <411@geovision.UUCP> pt@geovision.UUCP (Paul Tomblin) writes: >What about the AT&T Unix PC. Is it a real orphan, or does it work >ok? Unix World has some adds in the back that show it to be >around $1500 - 2000 for 2Mb Ram, 67Mb Hard Disk. Sounds good, but >can anyone tell me about software, expansion hardware, etc. For the price, it is hard to beat. You just have to keep in mind that anything that is not available for the machine now probably never will be. The machine is greatly helped by having the programs compiled with a shared library (for example /bin/cat is 2248 bytes) and it has a windowing system for the console. The development system includes vi and ksh (otherwise you don't get them). Some of the commands are not quite the same as SysVr2 (about 20 pages of differences in the docs) but the C language interface is almost exactly the same as any other SysVr2 machine. The speed is fine for one or two users. For example, GNU emacs (a 537K program) loads in about 15 seconds. Les Mikesell