[rescue] Re: HP J2240 sans gfx card... which OS?

[Gavin Hubbard]

<<
I picked up a J2240 (2x 236Mhz PARISC 8200, 2GB RAM) and was wondering
which OS y'all would recommend? 
>>

PARISC Linux is still really a beta platform - I don't think it should have been released as part of Debian 3.0 (which is supposed to be much more stable/conservative than the other distros out there). It has a lot of promise though.

AFAIK all HP 9000 systems manufactured after November 1st 1997 have an automatic right-to-use for HP-UX.

So I'd recommend you use HP-UX 11 or 11i for your new system. The media kits are fairly easy to find.

<<
I am leaning towards HP-UX 11-something but have heard good things
about Debian on HPPA as well. NetBSD and OpenBSD are not there yet.

This should be a pretty rocking box, right?
>>

Yes it is a good box, I used to have one. The only real issue is the physical size and weight - this thing is really a server class system. The dual width steel frame is a real b*tch to move, so find a spot from where you won't have to move it ever again :-)

If you want to get a graphics console, fx2/fx4/fx6 PCI framebuffer cards are pretty cheap on EBay as they won't work on PC systems (the PC compatible versions are designated with a plus e.c. fx2+/fx4+/fx6+ etc). They are pretty awesome lookingcards IIRC the fx6 has six PARISC cores on it!!

A good fx6 card shouldn't be more than 100USD on EBay.

<digression>
As soon as J6000 machine workstations (dual 550MHz) fall to under 1500USD I'm going to buy one. Should be in the next couple of months - I saw a complete one sell on EBay for 2500USD a few weeks ago. Curiously, the HP web-store price is still around 23kUSD.

Yummmm...16GB RAM support in a workstation :-o

Regards,

Gavin