Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!wugate!uunet!mcsun!cernvax!ethz!ethz-inf!wyle
From: wyle@inf.ethz.ch (Mitchell Wyle)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Workstation pricing, Sun vs. ISA
Message-ID: <1452@ethz-inf.UUCP>
Date: 2 Sep 89 12:42:48 GMT
References: <1989Aug30.204441.3294@algor2.algorists.com> <1989Sep1.014205.12901@algor2.algorists.com> <495@silence.princeton.nj.us>
Reply-To: wyle@ethz.UUCP (Mitchell Wyle)
Organization: Departement fuer Informatik, ETH Zuerich
Lines: 42

>But if you're going to shop (a/k/a mitigate), don't stop till you've
>done both sides of the street.

I was under the impression that a previous thread, which lead to this
one, established that distribution channels were more important than
price or performance.

I am very surprized that Sun does so *well* in price compared to the
generic DOS nachfolgers.  A Sun workstation comes with Sun-OS.  You
can't buy Sun-OS at any price for your DOS machine.  The qualitative
difference between Sun-OS and the other "nixes on intel iron is worth a
lot of money.

How many boxes does Compaq chip per year?  Sun?  When you buy your DOS
motor, you get it the same week.  You can wait a long time for your
Sun.  Sun exists because their boxes are faster, the software quality
is better, and of course, religion.

>Your needs are probably different from mine.  That's fine.  From my
>viewpoint, the Sun's value looks compelling.  If you don't have a
>good reason for needing an 80386, then run your comparison with a
>SPARCstation on the Sun side.  It'll look better.

MTBF is another big issue which you are all ignoring.  Bechtolsheim
stressed the fact that SPARCstations will probably fail less often
because of the way they're built.  They're also much easier to tinker
around with because robots have to assemble them, and humans are still
better manipulators.

>> whine about it, they just laugh.  Welcome to the NFL.  Don't forget
>> your helmet.
>OK.

There are too many more important issues (religion probably leads the
list) which you are not considering.  MTBF, quality of service (hw, sw),
software available, expandability, etc.

>	jay@princeton.edu

This discussion is enlightened, well-written, enjoyable, and filled with
interesting facts about street prices and experience.  Please continue.
I, for one, am learning a lot.