[rescue] Fry's

[Rick Hamell]

> > I no longer work in the shop anymore, so that's not a problem. People
> > expect a Sun or a Mac to cost more then a PC. They don't seem to realize
> > that for the same reason they cost more, PC parts of higher quality brands
> > cost more.
> >
> They make higher quality PeeCee parts?
> The last time I checked, even the best PeeCee parts were still crap.

	Yeah... I guess it depends on what you consider quality and how
you measure it. Mean Time Before Failure? Problems out of the
box? Usefullness? Speed? What? :) 
	For what I consider quality, yes... there is a large
differance. I've built PC's that are have been humming along for 5 years now
with no problems. (I can't claim longer because I was in College before
that.) I've worked on/with machines that have been working flawlessly even
longer then that. One notable experience being an old 8086 that ran a
specialized wood router. This paticular machine was their lifeblood and
produced about $1/4mill a day in product. The first time it had ever been
turned off was when they asked me to take a look at it, just to make
sure. The machine was literally stuffed with wood sawdust. It poured out
when I opened the cover, the PS fan couldn't turn at all because it was
so full. :) It took me nearly an hour and a high pressure air hose to get
it clean! :)

	I personally believe that every (current) architecture does what
it was designed to do pretty good. Sun for instance, makes a very nice
Database machine. But I would run the front end on a PC running FreeBSD
before I'd have a Sun doing it. (ala Hotmail.com)
	On the same token, I'd be using a Mac for graphic design or
publishing layouts before a PC or a Sun. And of course, if you're into
just games (and lets face it... games drive the industry,) you'd be
foolish to buy anything other then a PC.
	If you want to talk speed, well, I don't know of any Sun Machines
around that do 1.3 terrabytes of data transfers like ftp.cdrom.com use to
do (up until the last transfer of FreeBSD ownership.) 

	Granted, compared to some of the rest of you on this list, I have
little experience with "real machines," or mainframes, so I can't comment
on what they're useful for. :) It seems to me that the migration from
mainframes to distributed systems and back again seems to be about the
same. :) 
	Feel free to flame me, I'm willing to learn from people who have
more experience or different experiences from me. :) But, I will not ever
believe that one architecture is "best".	

	Rick


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