ejw@sask.UUCP (Eric Woodsworth) (11/20/87)
I submitted a question to comp.sys.dec 3 weeks or so ago, asking if
anyone had opinions on the VAXmate that they would be interested in
sharing. Our department (Environment Canada) is going into an all-DEC
conversion, including VAXen and VAXmates, and we are to get at least one
of the latter, so I was interested in knowing whether to steer clear of
them if possible. Although our larger offices will be running on Ethernet,
our office will not be so blessed, so we'll be connecting via modem to
the larger offices. I received several responses, which I will summarize
here.
Geoff Coleman (coleman@sask) says:
Don't touch them. They only have one disk. You have to add the
expansion box to get a hard disk. They are over priced and will
hopefully die in the near future
Joe Angel (angel@skyblu) says:
...this is a IBM-AT compatible machine which runs all of the known
hard-case software. There is a very nice MS-Windows based interface
between VaxMate and VMS, which I have seen demo-ed on a MicroVax.
It seemed to work beautifully.
Having said that, I think the damned things are too highly priced.
You could do much more with your money if you were to consider other
AT-compatible machines.
As you know, the VaxMate is intended to be a network workstation, not
simply an ordinary micro. Therefore it comes with an ethernet card.
...
Kevin Lowey (lowey@skyblu) says:
For my purposes the Vaxmate is great. However my purposes is using
the machine to communicate over ethernet to the mainframe. The things
I think are Great are not the Vaxmate, but rather Ethernet and Windows.
Any AT machine would be just as good.
I would NEVER buy a vaxmate as a stand alone machine. You have limited
expansion, no colour (although that may be changing), a non-standard
keyboard (although very similar to the PS/2 keyboards). You can't
add anything other than a modem, memory, and a 80287 chip without buying
the optional hard disk and pancake. The pancake has (only) three expansion
slots so crowded together that many cards won't fit easily.
The only thing the Vaxmate has going for it is the built in Ethernet
support and the version of Windows out for it.
Gert de Jong (ros@dnlunx) says:
....Here at DNL [Ptt Dr. Neher Laboratories, The Netherlands] one VAXmate
is located and connected via DECnet with all the hosts at this site.
It's really working marvellous! You can copy files, log in, etc and
with DEC's special Windows version, it really is astonishing: You
make a link to the Unix machine, put it in window, make a link to the
VAX/VMS and hop around with your mouse from Unix to VMS, just by clicking
the desired window! If you then have really nothing to do, you can
shell to MS-DOS as well!
Also an original IBM-AT is connected to DECnet. Also this works fine.
I haven't used windows on the IMB, but I think that it is as good
as on the VAXmate. If it works, of course, according to DEC's policy,
the VAXmate is for a normal AT compatible highly overpriced.
Alan Cabrera (13501adc@msu.bitnet) says:
I've read that a VAXmate without the Ethernet connection is pretty
useless. An Ethernet connection to a VAX apparently allows you to
remote mount disks for seamless use on your micro. Without the
Ethernet connection to your VAX, it would seem that you would be stuck
with an overpriced AT clone.
Norm Soley (norm@ontenv) says:
We looked at the VAXmate as well. Yes it is overpriced for what it
is. Unless you are working in an ETHERnet environment. The VAXmate
comes with (and requires) a special version of MS-DOS which includes
the ability to read RX50 diskettes under DOS. This required
re-writing of the disk driver which means that some programs which
talk to the disk controller directly won't work. The only one I found
this with was the Utility ZERODISK but diskette "speedup" programs
like VKETTE are also likely to bite it on the VAXmate. The machine
also suffers from the lack of space for a second floppy, the unit
comes with a 1.2 Meg floppy (like the AT) and can't be guarenteed to
safely write 360K floppies. Also it would be nice if you could buy
the expansion chassis (with two slots) without buying the 20 Meg hard
drive...We are getting a number of the units in a deal with DEC (One
for one trade on some PRO-350's that never ran the software we bought
them for.....)
So, from all this, I get a fairly definite picture that unless they are
jammed down our throat (which is not unheard of here), I'll be spending
my money on something else if I have the choice. However, as Jim Hood
(jim@forgen) says, the System Services Branch of Ontario MNR [like
Environment Canada] "has sold their collective souls to DEC and VMS,
but what do you get for all that EXTRA money?" Wouldn't a nice set of
VAXen running Ultrix, with peripheral 386 micros be more pleasant, if
the core of the system HAS to be DEC?
Anyway, does anyone have any favourite AT-compatibles? Thanks to all who
sent opinions.
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Eric Woodsworth / Canadian Wildlife Service / Saskatoon / Canada
UUCP: pmbrc!ejw BITNET: WOODSWORTH@SASK Tel: (306)-975-4087
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