Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL!Kemp From: Kemp@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL Newsgroups: comp.windows.news Subject: Re: another machine for your student Message-ID: <891109150347.356999@DOCKMASTER.ARPA> Date: 9 Nov 89 21:00:03 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 23 In response to: >> Besides, these things [SPARCstation-1's] are pretty expensive. Greg Earle replies: > Naahhh. A diskless SPARCstation-1, especially monochrome, is hardly > expensive. Since you work for a government institute, NCI probably > gets the standard Sun Government discount, which means SPARCstation-1's > cost almost nothing. That used to be true. I just found out that our Government discount has been cut almost in half. That's not to say they aren't still a great deal, it's just that their cost is a little farther from nothing than it was before. Our standard unit of currency is the SS-1 now. For example, a particular software package that used to cost $xx,xxx now costs 2.5 SS-1's. Any software that is less than 1 SS-1 is relatively easy to justify; anything more than that had better be pretty d*mn good if we are going to deprive an engineer or two of a desktop workstation in order to buy it. Dave Kemp