>--- John Ruschmeyer <jruschme_at_netzero.net> wrote:
>> > Well, that got me closer to home. It is an IPC and looks like it isn't
>> > really worth the time and effort. Just wonering how well they run
>> > Linux with X.
>>
>> On a Sun4c system like the IPC, the canonical wisdom is to avoid Linux
>> because of performance issues related to problems in the memory
>> management code. The better bet is NetBSD (go with 1.5.3) or OpenBSD.
>
>Agreed. Linux on sun4c is a *dog* (I tried to install Suse on a 1+)
>On a 32MB machine, Solaris 2.5.1 runs faster.
OpenBSD is likely to be a good choice. I've got a SparcBook 3GS that I
accidentally trashed the Solaris install on (of course I don't have a copy
of Tadpole's Solaris 2.5.1). I couldn't believe how snappy OpenBSD fells
on it!
>accelerated) are inexpensive to free. They are both 8-bit. You
>probably don't want to deal with 24-bit graphics on hardware that old.
>It's slow as molasses in January, but it does exist.
If you want 24-Bit graphics, connecting over the net might be the best
answer. That's how I get it for my Sparc 20 and VMS systems.
>If the IPC was free and you had a burning desire to play with a SPARC,
>by all means go for it. For people who want to learn Solaris (friends
>who are looking to enhance their career opportunities), I'm recommending
>OT hardware - SPARC5, Ultra 1/170e, etc. To put prices into perspective,
Personally I only recommend Sparc 5's for OpenBSD (they're single processor
systems and OpenBSD will only run on single processor Sparc's). For
Solaris I'd recommend Sparc 10's and 20's as it's getting to where they're
almost free, or if you either get lucky or are willing to spend a little go
for an Ultra 1, 2 or 5. If you get an Ultra 1, try and get one of the E's.
Now all this talk of Sparc's reminds me of what I was meaning to work on
this morning... Building the second Sparc 20/712 I just finished
collecting the parts for :^)
Zane
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh_at_aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
Received on Sat Oct 12 2002 - 12:32:00 BST