Moving to Intel

From: Dan Trottier <dan@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca>
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 1997 11:15:07 -0400
To: Neale Partington <csuite-dev-owner@chebucto.ns.ca>,
Cc: Eric Howland <ehowland@uwex.edu>, Landon Boyd <landon@chebucto.ns.ca>,

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On Jan 16, 12:19am, Neale Partington wrote:
} Subject: Re: Moving to Intel
> On Wed, 15 Jan 1997, Kevin_Georgison wrote:
> 
> > On 14 Jan 97 at 15:07, Landon Boyd wrote about Re: Moving to Intel:
> > 
> > > On Sat, 11 Jan 1997, Eric Howland wrote:
> > > 
> > 
> > [ snip ]
> > 
> > > > It seems very likely that this new machine will be Intel.
> > > > At the time we move, I would like to move to csuite. Since version
> > > > 5+ runs on both Linux and Solaris I wonder if there is a consensus
> > > > about  Solaris for Intel vs. Linux.  
> > > 
> I didn't know you could get Solaris for Intel.  Isn't it Sun proprietary?
> 
> Also, I'm told there are more Free-Nets running on Sun than Linux.  (I 
> gotta stick up for Sun lest support diminish for it :-)

Sun's are good platforms and very reliable if you take care to configure the
OS properly. When we bought systems in 1994 for the HWFN the Sun Workstations
were the way to go for the robustness and availability of software ports, etc.

Now, however, pentium systems running Linux, BSDI Unix, or even NT are all
reasonable environments in my opinion. The nice thing about going the Intel
route is that you are not tied into a single vendors OS. You can run all the
above OSes and even go to Solaris 2.5 if that is necessary. The robustness
didn't exist yet in 1994 but if it did and the fast pentium systems were
available back then I think the HWFN would have suggested going that route.

The one thing that people don't take care of when buying Intel boxes is 
making sure they have the appropriate hardware for the job. The workstations
come with high performance SCSI controllers and reliable network chips and
so forth. Too many people just buy the regular home consumer brand PC and
try to get it to handle a multi-user environment. Big mistake. You have to
look at top notch controllers and think carefully about slitting loads over
multiple disk controllers and disks, etc.

Anyway those are my 2 cents.

dan

-- 
Dan Trottier                                                  dan@mcmaster.ca
Dept of Computer Science & Systems           http://www.dcss.mcmaster.ca/~dan
McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario                  (905) 525-9140 x23444

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