[rescue] Just a thought - what would be a good starter SAPRC system these days?

[Ken Hansen]

I was wondering what folks suggest to frineds interested in getting a SPARC
system at home "to learn Solaris". The presumption is that you have no
access to "free" or "near-free" systems/hardware, only eBay, surplus
vendors, and newsgroups...

I'd be real hesitant to suggest anyone reach into their pocket and spend
money on anything without PCI option slots and an Ultra-class CPU.

Don't get me wrong, an SS/5-170 is *nice*, but at 256 color screen, it will
pale next to a mediocre PC for most end-user applications (IMHO). And there
is no way I'd say to *pay* any real money for any lesser SS/5-[70|85|110].

SBUS Ultras are very nice too, and quite expandable on the cheap, but with
the bargain prices on Ultra 30s, they are (IMHO) hard to justify ($350 for
U30 w/300 MHz CPU, 256/512 Meg RAM, 4 Gig Disk, CD-ROM & country kit
(IIRC) - Plus S/H/Tax).

SS/10s and SS/20s are just too slow, but after you drop a VSIMM or two
inside, they become great workstations, but even dual SM71s seem pokey
compared to current Celeron 500 MHz boxes.

And SS/1, SS/2, *any* lunchbox [IPC|LX|IPX|Classic] are too slow, and not
supported by current Solaris Operating Environment (meaning OS media will
cost $, not downloadable - remember, learning Solaris is the goal, not
NetBSD, Dave!).

A SPARCbook is nice, but if people don't know (and appreciate) the
internals, a 110 MHz SS/5-clone w/45 minute battery life is only so
impressive.

A Voyager "luggable" is also very cool, but far from impressive (as far as
system performance is concerned), and you will *never* be able to upgrade
the RAM without removing it from another system...

I have no exp. w/Ultra 5 and Ultra 10, but popular opinion seems to be that
they can be nice, but are quite hobbled by IDE subsystem, and a SCSI
overhaul is non-trivial!

SunBlade 100s are pretty affordable, esp. if you are in school (are they
still $750 for students?), and expansion is affordable too, but the
subsystem is still IDE (see above), and $750-$1K is a non-trivial
investment...

So any other folks have thoughts on this topic? ;^)

Ken