Experiences with DOS on the 386i

[Glenn Roberts]

> For those of you who have "several"(more than -1-) of the Sun 386i
> machines, how has your experiencesbeen  with DOS programs under
> Sun's DOS window environment?

Don't expect DOS to scream on the 386i.  Dbase III and Mass11 (our word
processing environment) seem to work at about "AT speed" in a DOS window.
You can run MS Windows in a SunView window.  This is really neat but will
run at "XT speed" or slower (just moving the cursor around in an MS Window
hogs most of my CPU - after all you're running MS Windows on top of DOS on
top of Unix!).

The biggest annoyance is the small window.  You might want to get the
RR-100 EGA/VGA option.  I saw this demonstrated at our local Sun office
and there is a way to enlarge the window display.  Sun list is $895.

Bottom line: if you're mostly interested in running DOS applications get a
Compaq or PS/2.  If you're mostly doing workstation type work, and by the
way once in a while you need to do DOS stuff, get a 386i.

- Glenn Roberts, The MITRE Corp., McLean VA
  gfr at cobra.mitre.org