[comp.sys.dec] Decstation advice

carlip@oucsace.cs.OHIOU.EDU (Walter Carlip) (12/19/90)

A friend of mine is considering getting either a DecStation 2 or a Sun
SparcStation 2 and has asked me for advice.

I know very little about decstations and would like to find out more.  I
understand that they run some flavour of UNIX -- but what flavor?  Do they
run X-Windows? Other window systems? Is there a version of TeX for
decstations?  How easy are they to network?  Can a decstation be 
hooked into a Sun network?  Can someone send me a rough comparison of the
two machines (email only please -- I do not want to start any kind of flame
war)?

Thanks!  Any help will be appreciated!

--Walter
_____________________________________________________________________________
Walter Carlip                 	        **** carlip@ace.cs.ohiou.edu ****
(the "3" is invisible)			
_____________________________________________________________________________

alan@shodha.enet.dec.com ( Alan's Home for Wayward Notes File.) (12/21/90)

In article <2720@oucsace.cs.OHIOU.EDU>, carlip@oucsace.cs.OHIOU.EDU (Walter Carlip) writes:
> A friend of mine is considering getting either a DecStation 2 or a Sun
> SparcStation 2 and has asked me for advice.

	I don't know what a DECstation 2 is.  We have:

		DECstation 3100
		DECstation 2100
		DECstation 5000-200

	The 3100 and 2100 use the MIPS R2000A.  The 5000-200 uses
	the MIPS R3000.
> 
> I know very little about decstations and would like to find out more.  I
> understand that they run some flavour of UNIX -- but what flavor?

	BSD derived, with lots of stuff pulled in from SysV.2.  It
	is of course POSIX and X/Open compliant.  We call it ULTRIX.
	It is a trademark.

> Do they run X-Windows? Other window systems? 

	Yes.  Out of the box, it uses DECwindows which is layered
	on top of X11.  The server is X11R3 based.  Some future
	version of ULTRIX will have the Motif look and feel.

	Motif can be ordered today as a layered product.  You can
	get the MIT X11 kit from where and run it if you want, but
	you'll be doing your own support.

> Is there a version of TeX for decstations?

	Yes.  I think you can get it the University of Washington
	or any number of ftp sites.  I don't really know, so some-
	body else will have to answer in detail.

> How easy are they to network?  

	Very, if you're TCP/IP on an Ethernet.

> Can a decstation be hooked into a Sun network?

	If it's an Ethernet, yes.

> Can someone send me a rough comparison of the two machines (email 
> only please -- I do not want to start any kind of flame war)?

	Sorry, my only experience is with DECstations.  The last
	Sun I saw up close was a 3/50 or some such.

> 
> --Walter
> _____________________________________________________________________________
> Walter Carlip                 	        **** carlip@ace.cs.ohiou.edu ****
-- 
Alan Rollow				alan@nabeth.enet.dec.com