SPARC laptops (was: RE: [SunRescue] Good x86 Laptop?)

[Gregory Leblanc]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chris Petersen [mailto:havoc at apk.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2000 8:29 AM
> To: rescue at sunhelp.org
> Subject: Re: [SunRescue] Good x86 Laptop?
> 
> In the meantime, IMHO, Solaris x86 hardware needs have not 
> kept up with the
> laptop market, rather than the other way around.  I've never 
> had a problem
> with buying high-end laptop hardware, I don't buy the 
> commodity stuff. 
> However, there isn't a high-end laptop out there today that 
> you can buy that
> will run with Solaris x86 2.7 with full support.  If you're 
> lucky, you can
> buy Accelerated X and at least your video may work (I know 
> support for my
> 1.5 year old Dell was just recently added, Xfree 86 had it first).  Of
> course, buying Accelerated X seems a little silly in the 
> first place, since
> my understanding (and that of severl folks I know) was that 
> Sun was using
> Accelerated X in OEM form for at least Solaris x86, maybe 
> even SPARC?  They
> just expect us to go out and buy the support we need from 
> third parties, I
> guess.  This wasn't the case prior to 2.7, at least you had 
> support for the
> better laptop hardware in a lot of cases.   One could argue 
> that this may
> have hurt the Tadpole & RDIs of the world, maybe that's what finally
> changed things.  Even at $3-5k it was cheaper to go x86 (and 
> usually get a
> more modern unit to boot) than to pony up the $10-12k for a 
> Tadpole.  To be
> fair, though, there were always good reasons to go 
> Tadpole/RDI, and there
> always will be.  I know that the product my company puts out 
> will not run on
> Solaris x86, due to hardware differences.  And that's 
> probably true of many
> of the applications that Tadpoles & RDIs are used for (GIS, 
> Oil exploration,
> engineering applications, etc.).

Why aren't there "commodity" level SPARC based laptops running in like the
5K range?  Looking at the Sun prices on their website, this doesn't seem
impossible to do...  If you can get a Ultra II on a VME-64 board for not
that bad of a price, you should really be able to get an ultra laptop for a
reasonable price.  All of the components to do it are there, especially
since there's the AXe, just integrate it alla wee bit more, and stick it in
a nice case.

> 
> > Also, with desktop machines so affordable (look at what you 
> can get for $1K
> > these days), most potential laptop buyers have opted for 
> home desktop machines
> > for folks that may have been a laptop candidate.
> 
> That's likely as well.  That, or cheap older SPARC hardware 
> (the route I
> ended up taking).  That, or the other alternative:  Linux or 
> a *BSD, and
> then Solaris ends up taking the back seat...
> 
> Just strikes me as odd that Sun kind of seems to want to 
> ignore what was
> always a good, strong, traditional market for Solaris x86 to 
> go and pursue
> Intel-based servers.  Maybe they think there'll be a Linux 
> backlash in the
> future and they want to be poised for that busines...In the 
> meantime, I
> guess I'll end up slogging 2 laptops if I want to use Solaris 
> x86 (my old
> Tecra should be supported, although it died half way through 
> the install the
> first time I tried it), or just give in and go Linux (not my first
> choice...).

Why?  I'm much happier running Linux on my desktop than I am with Solaris.
I'm still pissed that the SPARC SCSI support in linux is so sucky, but other
than that it seems much nicer to work with, and easier to get a decent
desktop out of, than Solaris.  
	Greg