[rescue] The best 'rescue' workstation

[Steve Sandau]

> | Yes a dual PIII system will be faster than an Ultra60, but probably not
> | by as much as you might expect. On the other hand an Ultra60 will be
> | more stable, and degrade less under load than a PIII. As an example, I'm
> | often running a distributed.net client on my Octane, Sun, and PC laptop.
> | I usually stop the client on the laptop when I'm actively using it as it
> | slows down interactive use. I don't notice the difference on the Octane,
> | or Sun.
> 
> These are the kind of things I am looking to hear. Thanks!
> 

I find that there is little difference in my "user experience" between a 
350-450MHz Pentium (I run Linux on them as desktops) and my Ultra2 with 
2/200MHz (comparable memory, 512M or so). I'm even pretty well satisfied 
with the desktop performance of an Ultra1 @170MHz. Granted, I am not 
very demainding, using Mozilla, Squirrel SQL, Gaim, and lots of ssh 
sessions, but still... I'd never think of using a 166 PeeCee for that...

I also think the "gee-whiz" factor of speed in Intel boxes crops off 
pretty drastically after about 1GHz or so. My new 2.6 GHz Dell desktop 
at work has not impressed me at all. It sits next to a 350MHz Linux box 
and the 170MHz Ultra1, both of which I prefer to it...

One other thing about Suns and Solaris that I like: when looking for 
quick downloads of things like plugins, the SPARC Solaris plugin is much 
more likely to exist than anthing for Irix, AIX, etc. Seems to be that 
Windows, Linux/Intel, Mac/OSX and SPARC Solaris are usually available.

Steve