[geeks] Solaris 9 changes

[Lionel Peterson]

> From: Mike F <lists at ibrew.net>
> Date: 2004/07/28 Wed PM 04:50:19 GMT
> To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
> Subject: Re: [geeks] Solaris 9 changes

> Is it just me, or does it seem like Ultra 1 prices (on ebay and 
> elsewhere) have very recently fallen through the floor? I wonder if this 
> is related to Solaris 10 dropping UltraSPARC 1 support? I wouldn't mind 
> acquiring a couple of Ultra 1s now that they're so cheap, but if they 
> won't run Solaris 10, it makes them much less attractive.

Welcome to economics 101 ;^)

Seriously, there were a ton of Ultra 1s made, and as they approached 3 years of age their value went down hill, based on the number available. (They didn't get any slower ;^)

The three years may have been driven by corp. depreciation rates, the high cost of annual support compared with ever-cheaper new hardware, etc...

They are great network "building blocks", suitable for many basic activities (I plan on deploying a U1-200E as a firewall running OpenBSD when I get the spare cycles to set it up). Heck, if you did nothing more than install base Solaris 8 or 9 on the machine and hook a laser printer on the back, they make great print servers (just drop the printer on top of the U1). And with "complete" systems available so cheaply - about $25 plus shipping, why not?

As noted previously, they are good for test network labs too.

The sweet-spot for a desktop system IMHO from a price/performance standpoint is either an Ultra 2 w/dual 300 MHz CPUs (faster too expensive) for server duty, and for a desktop a nice late model U5 or U10 (with the great 360 400, or 440 MHz CPUs) or a nice U30. All three of these system sell for under $150 frequently on eBay. Occasionally, *well under* $150.