[rescue] replacing an Ultra2

[Mark]

On 15 Apr 2007, at 04:23, Bill Bradford wrote:

> On Sat, Apr 14, 2007 at 01:07:14PM -0400, Steve Sandau wrote:
>> I was starting to lean towards (and maybe I am still) a SunBlade  
>> (love
>> those USiii CPUs). But if I could run other OSes in a VMWare type
>> environment on an Ultra 20, that might be a point in the U20's favor.
>> Anyone do anything like this? I don't even know if VMWare or  
>> something
>> like it is available for Solaris x64. Seems that a lot of things are
>> available for Linux, SPARC Solaris and OSX, and that is it...
>
> Jonathan Patschke has a Mac Pro, and he runs TONS of stuff in  
> Parallels
> VMs.
>
> I use Parallels for Windows XP (work stuff) and RHEL/CentOS  
> (testing/dev).
> It works *great*.

I agree, Parallels is fantastic if you don't want 3D support (and  
lets face it if you do you need a dedicated machine anyway). Solaris  
10 x86 (not, x64 is *not* supported yet) works like a charm. You just  
have to be a little patient with it and also I had to adjust the X  
config when I first booted to stop it using 1600x1200 (it don't fit  
on a 17" TFT!). The only thing I will say is, as ever with UNIX, lots  
of RAM is a big bonus. I only have 1GB and I have to close nearly  
everything to get any decent performance out of Solaris 10, and it is  
only using 512MB. I think it'd be fine with 2GB though.
I also run Windows 2000 and am trying to get Arch Linux 0.8 to work  
(doesn't seem to recognize the virtual CD in the installer :o( ). The  
Windows support is superb, and Coherence mode makes using Windows a  
fairly pain-free experience.

That said, in all honesty a decent Mac Pro system that would meet  
those needs is gonna cost some serious wedge. They are, I believe  
worth the money though, they are built to very high standards, easily  
on a par with Sun, althogh the design is as you would expect  
something of a departure from Sun's somewhat conventional x86  
workstation design. It is however immensely effective, giving a very  
powerful and capable UNIX machine that is virtually silent, save for  
hard disk seek noise.

Oddly, I've also found it actually has the effect of cooling your  
work area (slightly) when it's running too, as it sucks quite a large  
volume of air air towards it and the grille on the front is always  
cold. I try to leave my beers there if I can :o). If you really need  
airflow you can grab the SMCfancontrol tool and crank the fans up,  
but bolt the cat down - with all 5 going at full tilt the thing could  
easily suck up pets and small children!
It doesn't throw out a particularly large amount of heat for such a  
high end piece of hardware. And importantly the airflow it tuned so  
it produces almost still rising air at the back, rather than blasting  
hot air horizontally outwards, which is more efficient and also means  
you don't ruin the airflow if the tail end is close to a wall or  
partition.

Boy I'm a geek. Then again I wouldn't be on these lists if I wasn't,  
right?

-- 
Mark Benson

My Blog:
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