herber@cis.ohio-state.edu (Steve Herber) (12/30/90)
Last year, I got a letter from Sun stating layered products would no longer be distributed on 1/2-inch tape, only 1/4-inch cartridges. I used that as one of my arguments to get in a 1/4-inch tape drive for my group of workstations I manage. Within the last couple of months, I start hearing that CDROM will be the ONLY meands of distribuition of SunOS in 1991. Am I alone in thinking I got jerked around thinking that my software distribution problems were resolved by purchasing the 1/4-inch tape and then being 'forced' into picking up a CD reader? Now, I know that SUN is pricing the CDROM readers at attractive levels (<$500 for a school) but there are some catches. I only have a SCSI interface on my Sun 3 systems, not the Sun 4 and the CDROM is not supported on the Sun 3 architechure. That $500 cost is now $2000 when I have to pick up a SCSI interface also. I just feel that I wasn't given the full scoop early on and that makes me look like a idiot when I have to go back and ask for additional equipment AGAIN because Sun says I can't live without it. Any takers? Steve Herber Internet herber@andy.bgsu.edu Systems Programming Manager BITNET HERBER@BGSUOPIE Bowling Green State Univ. UUCP ...!osu-cis!bgsuvax!herber
jay@silence.princeton.nj.us (Jay Plett) (12/31/90)
In article <938@brchh104.bnr.ca>, bgsuvax!herber@cis.ohio-state.edu (Steve Herber) writes: ... [ on Sun distribution media ] ... > Am I alone in thinking I got jerked around ... No, you're not alone. I too think Sun is arrogantly disregarding its customers' needs and problems with its policy on distribution media. I have one department with two 4/280 servers and Sun3 and Sun4c clients. These servers were Sun's premier product less than 2 years ago. They have only a 1/2" tape drive. They do not have SCSI interfaces, a perfectly reasonable and common configuration at the time they were purchased. It will probably be a year or two before they can be upgraded. Installing 4.1.1 will be a nuisance because Sun4c is available only on 1/4" tape or CDROM. I have a 1/4" drive on the subnet, but it can't be attached to the servers because they have no SCSI interface. I wouldn't mind buying a CDROM, but I'm loathe to spend the money for a SCSI interface for a machine that will be retired in a year or two. SVR4 will be even more annoying, since I won't even be able to bootstrap the servers from the only available media (CDROM). IMHO, Sun should support its installed base during a reasonable amortization period. Support includes distributing OS media from which their machines can be bootstrapped. I think Sun should do two things: 1. Continue supplying the OS on 1/2" and 1/4" tapes for all architectures for at least 3-5 more years. 2. Provide a software utility which enables customers to cut their own bootable 1/2" or 1/4" install tapes from the CDROM. Then larger customers could purchase one set of media and make whatever media they need, and field offices could take care of their smaller customers. If Sun thinks that supporting their customers with appropriate installation media is too expensive, then they should include free SCSI interfaces with their cheap special on CDROMS. Now, don't anybody get me started on SVR4 and no-Sun3-support. I might get really mad. So far I've managed to suppress thoughts of what it will be like to support an oxymoronic heterogeneous single-vendor subnet.
ken@marob.masa.com (Ken Stamm) (01/03/91)
In article <981@brchh104.bnr.ca> jay@silence.princeton.nj.us (Jay Plett) writes: >In article <938@brchh104.bnr.ca>, bgsuvax!herber@cis.ohio-state.edu (Steve Herber) writes: >1. Continue supplying the OS on 1/2" and 1/4" tapes for all architectures > for at least 3-5 more years. > >2. Provide a software utility which enables customers to cut their own > bootable 1/2" or 1/4" install tapes from the CDROM. Then larger customers > could purchase one set of media and make whatever media they need, and > field offices could take care of their smaller customers. We actually have the same problems the writer states, concerning 4/280s with no SCSI 1/4" or CDrom. I like alternative #2, above, but suspect it will never happen. Sun has made it rather difficult (tho not impossible) to dup boot tapes. SunOS 4.1.1c on 1/4" is a particularly fine piece of work, in this regard. I propose alternative #3: 3. Allow Sun's field offices to dup off 1/4 and 1/2" copies of the current SunOS for their smaller (and larger!) customers. Comments? Ken Stamm (ken@slhisc.uucp, sun.com!gotham!slhisc!ken) (212)341-3868 Shearson Lehman Brothers, 390 Greenwich St. 4W, New York NY 10013
jas@proteon.com (John A. Shriver) (01/07/91)
Folks, we are discussing irrelevancies with "all architectures" here. Please remember that SunOS 4.0.3 was the last Sun-2 release, and SunOS 4.1.1 is the last Sun-3 release. There is only one architecture, SPARC. Any future releases will be SPARC-only, there is no problem that the CD-ROM drive is only supported on the Sun-4. However, Sun certainly has done a bad turn to folks that don't have a CD-ROM drive. Of course, maybe you can pay for the drive with the money you save by dropping the (patently useless) software support contracts on the Sun-3's. I wonder when Sun will start dropping software support for the old SPARC models that don't support CD-ROM?