[rescue] Xserve

[dave at cca.org]

nate at nategrady.hn.org writes:

>So I'm a hypothetical PHB. What do I see as the best deal - the Apple! I mean, 
>Macs are easy to use, unlike that Linux crap (says this hypothetical PHB - 
>not me) and way cheaper than Win2k (with it's familiar GUI) and it has the 
>engineering / stability of real UNIX boxes like Sun's but without the hefty 
>price. 

>I really have to say Apple looks to have hit a home run with the Xserver!

It looks like a very good marketing move - much like the iMac was.
Lots of Mac shops want a serious, fast, solid server, but they're
intimidated as hell by Suns and other such "Unix! Scaaaary!" systems.
This runs OS X, so they don't think of it as "Unix! Scaaaary!", even
though it is. Lots and lots of Mac shops that should have a generic
unix server will buy these, because they're afraid they won't be able
to handle the unix box, but they know the Mac is "just a Mac" and
will work with little or no effort.

I would hope science types don't buy these - they should be using
POWER4 systems!

As for the Sun price/specs issue - it would be interesting to see
the real system benchmarks. IO, memory bandwidth, context switch,
etc., etc. Sun has always managed to make killer machines, even
if they're lagging in the CPU performance race.

------ David Fischer ------- dave at cca.org ------- http://www.cca.org ------
-------- "I prefer the ridiculous to the sublime." - James Chance ---------