Problems with the 7300

[Mark Horton]

The UNIX PC is clearly intended as a single user machine.  It runs
UNIX, so in theory you can have more than one user.  They even provide
a way to plug in another user or two.  But this is also true of the IBM XT
running any of the UNIX ports, yet you would never claim the XT is
intended as a multi-user machine.  So the time it takes 2 users to log in
on a stripped model is hardly an important benchmark.

$6K gets you a fully loaded machine.  (Plus software, and I'm not sure
what that's priced at.)  At that price, the UNIX PC has no competition.
It's MUCH faster than an XT.  Unlike the IBM AT, it has a 12.5MHz
processor (about 6 times the benchmark speed of the XT), a full 32 bit
machine (well, it's a 68010, it LOOKS like 32 bits), and there are no
known reliability problems with the disk.

The other products in this market, such as the 3B2, the Fortune, and
the Tektronix, will run you $10K or more, and you have to supply your
own terminal (which probably won't be bitmapped.)  (The HP will run
you $9K if you want a hard disk.)  (These products do have additional
capabilities, such as decent multi-user performance and faster disks,
but are often used as single user machines anyway.)

And yes, given the choice of a UNIX PC or a Sun, I'd choose a Sun any day.
The Sun has a much larger screen, is faster, and speaks TCP/IP/Ethernet.
However, the Sun is in a totally different market.  You have to spend
over $16K (list price) for their most stripped standalone system, plus
$4K for a 2nd MB of RAM (4.2BSD is a pig with only 1MB) and another $4K
if you want the bitmapped display.  You need to have several users to make
their fileserver oriented system pay off financially.