[SPARCbook] Precisionbook on ebay

[Christopher J. Heric]

I have run into a lot of people who have somehow aquired sparcbooks and other esoteric Unix hardware, and simply do not know that it does not run Windows or Mac OS. They think a computer is a computer. I was given an Apple Netserver (An AIX variant from Apple based on PowerPC, nearly identical to the RS6000... it was the only truly native Apple Unix box, and I had a client who had somehow aquired one (He had to have the BEST of everything), and thought it would
run Mac OS.  Of course, it wouldn't...  prompting my client to ask me a year or more later, after letting it languish un-hooked up... "can you use this?".  and veritably gave it to me. A server that at one time listed for almost $40,000.00 a lear later given away due to ineptitude. A fool and his money. Regardless, I now have a really nice server with hot-swappable power supplies etc...

Everyone who sees my sparcbook (affectionately named "sparky") just assumes that it runs windows. I think that a lot of this stuff just turns up in someones office, the company gets sold, or "Liquidated" and the stuff goes to wholesalers who know little about systems and their maintenance...  it gets put into a generic bin, and sold as fancy but questionable wintel junk.... someone like I mentioned above buys it... flails around trying to install Quake, gives up
and sells it on eBay. I literally think the lifetime history of a lot of stuff is a lot closer to that reality than we might like to mention.

Thanks to all who helped me with my Sparcbook issues, some have been very helpful, while others have made sure that I felt like enough of a fool for not knowing the implicit details and inner workings of the FAQ. I now have a very nice install of Solaris 2.6, and Patches.... smoothly running along. It runs pretty cool too considering... it is never off. I was expecting it to run a lot hotter. I need to work a bit more (brushing up on my comman-line interface and
DNS controls) to set up my subdomain and gateways, but things are going well... thanks again.

Chris H.