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From: eric@plus5.UUCP (Eric W. Kiebler)
Newsgroups: net.micro.att
Subject: 7300 Tidbits and questions
Message-ID: <739@plus5.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 12-May-85 23:39:42 EDT
Article-I.D.: plus5.739
Posted: Sun May 12 23:39:42 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 17-May-85 03:48:19 EDT
Organization: Plus Five Computer Services, St. Louis
Lines: 59
Keywords: safari

I have had a chance to play with the 7300 and plan to get one.  Here is
what I have learned (or think I know...)

*  Don't expect anything good from ATT sales people for about 6 months.
   AT&T is trying very hard to improve their sales and sales support
   organizations, but it takes time.  Many of the people that have been
   out selling UNIX are retreaded voice salesfolk, and they just don't have
   the data area under their belt yet.  This is not an excuse, it is a
   reason.  (I don't work for ATT and have no vested interests.)

*  Don't buy a 7300 with less than a MB, period.

*  It is possible to get expansion units from third party people that
   are quite reasonable.  There is at least one vendor that has a 40MB
   drive in a 7300 and plans are in the works for interfacing the
   brand-new optical disks.  

*  The interface specs are semi-secret and appear to be going only to
   certified VARS, and even then only when pressure is applied.

*  The machine is not fast and not slow.  The graphics are not stellar, but
   they work.  It really does run UNIX SVR2 and it does have virtual
   memory that appears to work.  This is a *BIG* plus over the other machines
   I have looked at.  The next closest thing is the U! and the ISI/NBI S!,
   and they are much more expensive.

*  The C-compiler that is currently being delivered DOES NOT support
   flexnames.  THIS IS A MAJOR PROBLEM, AT&T!!!  The machine is virtual --
   any reason we can't have a few extra chars on our variable names?
   The LPI compiler also seems to be a compiler of few characters.
   I didn't have enough time to see if the problem was with the compiler
   or just the linker, but nm seemed to think that vars were teeny-weeny.

*  I did not see a uucp out there.

*  Nobody is quite sure which programs are really packaged with the various
   unix segments they offer.  Especially nebulous is the Electronic Mail
   system.  I assume that this is some neat mailer as opposed to mailx
   or /bin/mail or cat.

THE BOTTOM LINE

   It has a 68K instead of a braindamaged 80286, the price is about the
   same as an AT, and it runs real UNIX, and it performs well enough for
   most UNIX applications IN COMPARISON TO THE COMPETITION.  If I had
   $18K for a MicroVaxII then there would be no contest (they want $26K
   for a VaxStation II which is about the same machine, looking from the
   outside, as a safari).  Most importantly, it has the name ATT on it,
   and people are almost as willing to buy from them as they are IBM.

eric



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