eejsc@marlin.jcu.edu.au (John Croft) (02/14/91)
What may (or may not) be a good idea is to do a comparison between the
various workstation level machines:
Prices, HD, RAM, (dare i say it!) MIPS, freebie stuff
Machines which come to mind:
Amiga 3000UX, AmigaStation :-)
DEC DECStation 2100, 5000,
HP-Apollo 9000/400,
NextStation, NextCube,
Sun SparcStation, SLC, IPC, 1+,
I suppose a magazine like 'WorkStationWorld' [ :-) ] would be what we
want...
I liked the AmigaStation, Slab/Pizza box, 3000 motherboard w/ ethernet
card, 200MB HD, (faster than now) X server (maybe R4 will do...)
Hmmmm, this sounds like a smart X-Terminal, eg:
TekXpress: 68030, 34020, X11R4 server, gray & colour
NCD: ?, NCD-ASIC, X11R4 server, gray & colour
As Peter da Silva asked: "Where are all these machines aimed?"
cheers johnc << comp.sys.amiga.advocacy - what a group! - what a flame! >>
--
John Croft eejsc@marlin.jcu.edu.au -or- zolos@paladine.jcu.edu.au
Tutor, Dept EE Engineering, James Cook Uni, Townsville,Q 4811
Reef Amigans User Group, POBox 988, Aitkenvale,Q 4812AXN100@psuvm.psu.edu (02/14/91)
eejsc@marlin.jcu.edu.au (John Croft) Writes: >As Peter da Silva asked: "Where are all these machines aimed?" Well here's a guess as to where all of these workstations are being directed. My guess is that all of these computers are being aimed at the upper end of the computer market, not the workstation world. The prices of a useable computers has risen incredibly. This is because users expect more from their computers, for example a diskdrive. How many C64 were sold without a diskdrive? Probably quite a few. However, now people are demanding that computers have harddrives, etc. This demand is pushing the price of a computer higher and higher. At the same time, workstation vendors have been lowering prices on their workstations. Remember a few years ago, when low end workstations cost close to $9000, well now, they cost about $5000. By the time a user configurs a computer to their needs, with enough RAM, a harddrive, ect. they quickly approach the point where a workstation looks attractive. So the thinking is that if workstations could go down a little more, they could get all of these users, and businesses. Well that is my guess as to where they are all aimed. Like I said before, and will probably say again, there are very few people who need to purchase new computers. Most "out of date" computers are still useable. The only reason to "upgrade" is to keep up with the Joneses, and to defend youself in a flame war. I too have caught myself doing saying "Wow that would be really neat to have!", and have to quicky slap myself back into reality with "Your going to pay how much to make you Ami a little more neat?!" So that is yet another market these low-end workstations are being aimed at: Boobs. People who go into a computer store and say "Yea, I'll take that XXYYY 5billion PC with 900 Megs of RAM, 800 Gig Harddrive, Super-Excellent-You- Can't-Even-See-All-Of-These-Colors (Conforms to the MEGABUCKS standard) Monitor and viedo card, and one 9 pin dot matrix printers." Yes people like this do exist and they should be outlawed like astro-turf, and the DH. Then again I could be way off the mark. >cheers johnc << comp.sys.amiga.advocacy - what a group! - what a flame! >> >-- >John Croft eejsc@marlin.jcu.edu.au -or- zolos@paladine.jcu.edu.au > Tutor, Dept EE Engineering, James Cook Uni, Townsville,Q 4811 > Reef Amigans User Group, POBox 988, Aitkenvale,Q 4812 Ajai
swarren@convex.com (Steve Warren) (02/15/91)
In article <91045.105853AXN100@psuvm.psu.edu> AXN100@psuvm.psu.edu writes: >eejsc@marlin.jcu.edu.au (John Croft) Writes: > >>As Peter da Silva asked: "Where are all these machines aimed?" > > Well here's a guess as to where all of these workstations are > being directed. My guess is that all of these computers are being > aimed at the upper end of the computer market, not the workstation ... It's a nice idea, but there's only one problem - the software for these machines costs a fortune. I have no desire to try to buy software for a workstation. It's out of my league. -- _. --Steve ._||__ DISCLAIMER: All opinions are my own. Warren v\ *| ---------------------------------------------- V {uunet,sun}!convex!swarren; swarren@convex.com
griffin@frith.uucp (Danny Griffin) (02/15/91)
AXN100@psuvm.psu.edu writes: [usual stuff deleted] > Like I said before, and will probably say again, there are very > few people who need to purchase new computers. Most "out of date" > computers are still useable. The only reason to "upgrade" is to keep up > with the Joneses, and to defend youself in a flame war. Out of date computers are still usable -- meaning what? That they still work? If your Sinclair sits around with dust on it then maybe you should think twice about spending several thousand dollars on another computer. However, if you actually *use* the thing, and can afford to upgrade, you'd be silly not to. How much is your time worth? Apparently not very much. PageStream cries out for something faster than my stock A2000. And I need all the ram I can fit in it to multitask effectively. If I didn't have 7 MB of ram I couldn't have WordPerfect and PageStream up working together, VLT capturing messages or transfering files, and Imagine working on the latest engineering design animation all at the same time. Not to mention the normal background stuff like GOMF, cron, dmouse, ad nauseum. I need an A3000! [more stuff deleted] > Then again I could be way off the mark. Light years. -- Dan Griffin griffin@frith.egr.msu.edu
peter@sugar.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva) (02/16/91)
Regarding "obsolete" computers: I just sold my CP/M machine for $60 a month or so ago, because with a 386 and my two Amigas I finally decided I didn't need it as a backup any more. I still keep my Atari 800 for my son, though. Saves wear and tear on the old Amigas, plus the games on the Atari 800 tend to be more playable than the more modern "full motion" arcade-quality games. -- Peter da Silva. `-_-' <peter@sugar.hackercorp.com>.