Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!dyer@spdcc.COM
From: dyer@spdcc.COM (Stephen P. Dyer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.rt
Subject: Re: Inquieries for "Bad Aspects" of the RT
Message-ID: <8158@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>
Date: 27 Nov 88 04:56:50 GMT
References: <7963@dasys1.UUCP>
Sender: daemon@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU
Reply-To: dyer@spdcc.com
Organization: S.P. Dyer Computer Consulting, Cambridge MA 02138
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In article <7963@dasys1.UUCP> johnc@dasys1.UUCP (John Canati) writes:
>I am interested in the RT, and have been looking at it for a while.  While
>IBM will brag about it, and their salesmen with tell me only the goodies
>it has to offer, I would like a "public opinion" as to what are the BAD
>aspects of the RT.  Why wouldn't I want to use it as a multiuser system
>around a small business?  Please mail anything you think might will help
>me with my question.  Thanks in advance -- John - johnc@dasys1.UUCP

There don't seem to me to be many large technical problems with the RT.
I can't speak for the AIX 2.x environment, but running AOS (4.3BSD) here
at MIT, given enough memory, the 2nd generation (APC) RT makes a remarkably
pleasant and fast 4.3BSD/X11/NFS/TCP-IP workstation.  I understand that
the latest version of AIX has, or will have soon, many or most of the important
features of 4.3: sockets, X11, sendmail, BSD TCP/IP, long names (soon).

One problem was that the 1st generation RTs were not as competitive as
some other companies' workstations.  Still, the DEC uVAX-II was no
faster than the 1st RT (perhaps slower) and it did just fine, so
technical aspects don't make all the difference.  The newer APC models
and the latest enhanced APC models are quite competitive, performing
significantly better than most equivalent 68020-based products.

The biggest problem with the RT is that it has been disastrously
marketed.  Hardly anyone knows anyone who has bought an RT, and
advertising is practically invisible.  And just try to buy one.  I
bought a used Model 20 last month, and I am still waiting to talk to
the right person at IBM about purchasing peripherals and getting an APC
upgrade, and the local IBM office is still treating me like a
curiosity instead of a customer--and, with money in my hand, yet!
Don't try to call a dealer, because most salespeople will give
you a blank stare if you don't say PS/2 after the initials "IBM".

A large company like IBM can blow a product like the RT and the red ink
barely makes a blotch in their ledgers.  On the other hand, a Sun
Microsystems can not afford to do this--their early products were
everything their company was based on, and they HAD to be marketed well.
I don't see any evidence that the RT is being marketed any better
now than it was before, and I would be much more worried about a
company like IBM pulling out of an unsuccessful product line than, say,
Sun dropping the Sun 3 product line.  (Hey, I bought a PC Jr, OK?)

I think the latest RT machines are technically just fine, and I'm glad
I bought mine, since I'm coming out of an environment with a lot of RT
experience, but you'll want to look at all your options before buying
a small business computer.  Because of the (relatively) small market for
the RT, there is much less price competition for software than in the
DOS world, or even for the XENIX/UNIX 386 or Sun 3 world.  That is,
there will probably be less software available and it will be more
expensive than that for DOS, XENIX, UNIX V/386 or the Sun 3 families.
A 386 machine running SCO XENIX 386 or UNIX V/386 might support your
multiuser needs just as well as a more expensive workstation.  Or it
might not; that depends on your situation.
---
Steve Dyer
dyer@arktouros.mit.edu
dyer@spdcc.com aka ...!{harvard,linus,ima,m2c,rayssd}!spdcc!dyer