Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!snorkelwacker!spdcc!dyer From: dyer@spdcc.COM (Steve Dyer) Newsgroups: comp.unix.aix Subject: Re: Risc System/6000 Message-ID: <1792@ursa-major.SPDCC.COM> Date: 22 Feb 90 01:13:55 GMT References: <10307@hoptoad.uucp> <4115@ibmpa.UUCP> <5098@brazos.Rice.edu> <13531@granite.BBN.COM> Reply-To: dyer@ursa-major.spdcc.COM (Steve Dyer) Organization: S.P. Dyer Computer Consulting, Cambridge MA Lines: 21 8mb is probably tight for any current RISC machine. But IBM's entry level system for $13K is at least usable (if slower than optimal) out of the box unlike the ridiculous low-ball prices for Sun and DEC diskless machines which aren't usable unless you have another big machine acting as a server out on your net. I think IBM should be as accountable as any of the other players, but I'm a little tired of hearing them be dragged over the coals for practices which, if anything, are more generous than their competition. Sun OS 4.x has never been thought of as small, yet you never heard the same bitching and kvetching when they announced the SparcStation 1 with 8mb of memory and a 100+change megabyte disk. If you add more disk and memory, you still get something which is as, if not more, competitive than what the competition offers now. -- Steve Dyer dyer@ursa-major.spdcc.com aka {ima,harvard,rayssd,linus,m2c}!spdcc!dyer dyer@arktouros.mit.edu, dyer@hstbme.mit.edu