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New Tadpole SPARCbook RSN
Jon Masters wrote to us in regards to the SPARCBook 6500 from Tadpole. Solaris 9, 4 gigs of RAM and all that - but with the TiBooks and Linux working on laptops, how much do people need Solaris laptops?
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Yes, at this point the advantages of a Solaris laptop are a pittance compared with what else is out there.
Most user applications that demand laptop portability are met with x86 hardware or a Mac running Powerpoint.
Even if Sun had had the benefit of Intel's economies of scale so that we'd be using UltraSPARC V's by now, they still would have difficulty selling the laptop to any market except perhaps Solaris field engineers.
64 bit addressing and Solaris 9 is a great boon for folks running databases on big iron, but I just can't see what it buys you on a laptop.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
You may have Solaris apps or need to test against a sparc. That or you just can't find a TiBook with ->4gigs- of RAM.
I honestly worry about the number of brain cells that Hemos and others like him are firing on, at times.
Every single time an article about Sun/Solaris comes out, someone (often the original poster) will say, "but Linux does xxx, so we don't need this!"
Everybody chant the following mantra: Solaris is not Linux. Linux is not Solaris. There is room for both.
Do we need this laptop? Well hell, do we need laptops at all? Is there some reason we NEED a Linux laptop over one running Win2k? Of course not!
That said, some things are easier under Linux that Windows. (and vice versa!) Some things are more mature under Solaris than Linux (or maybe all things?). Some people prefer Solaris, some prefer Linux, some prefer Windows, and some preferred OS/2. WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY do we have to say "but Linux..." EVERY SINGLE FUCKING TIME ANYTHING ABOUT ANY OTHER PLATFORM IS MENTIONED?????
OK, rant off. Just had to get that off my chest.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
I've got Solaris x86 running on Toshiba 4020CDT laptop and I use it like a server. I've got Apache, MySQL, and PHP running a copy of OpenDB for my group at work. I'm very impressed with the performance of a machine that was lumbering along with Windows 2000.
And with the battery, it's has a builtin UPS!
Sure, I could have used Linux. But I mostly use Solaris for work, so I chose to work with an operating system I'm more familiar with.
I'm not a huge SUN fan, from a business standpoint, but this actually has some merit. I can see some applications for admins, engineers, etc., though still a niche-market. They say that even a mouse will fight a lion if backed into a corner. So it's interesting to see the last death throes of Sun. I just don't think this strategy is the kind of thing that makes sense.
--RIP DMC, here's some 40 for me, and some for my homies.
"This isn't a study in computer science, its a study in human behavior"
I didn't know other OEMs besides Sun used the SPARC processors. Are there any other OEM besides Tadpole and Sun that make SPARC based machines?
but with the TiBooks and Linux working on laptops, how much do people need Solaris laptops?
Well, I can tell you that there are certainly a number of users in the military as well as applications that certain government and quasi government agencies use running on Solaris. A few years ago at the Whitehouse, I noticed a number of Solaris workstations and the first laptop running Solaris I had ever seen. I don't know about things currently, but I expect there to be more Windows machines there now than there used to be. Although our Veep Dick Cheney appears to use a TiBook.....
Additionally, the TiBook is limited to 1GB of RAM (hardware limited NOT the OS which can address much more) and there are number of users in the sciences and video editing markets who would like portable 2GB workstations, but given Apple's focus on video editing, I would expect the next TiBook revision (not the one next week) will address more RAM.
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
Start saving your pennies now...Sparcbooks are *expensive*. I have a Sparcbook 3XP circa early 90s. MicroSPARC II processor at 85 mHz, 1.2 scsi laptop drive, tricked out with 128 meg RAM purchased on eBay for $110 after shipping (seen them go for twice that, so it was a steal). From what I can find out from old newsgroups, they ran in the $16,000+ range back when. Ditto on the second generation. I don't expect that this third or fourth generation will be any cheaper. I'll go find those numbers again and maybe post non A/C, but I know it was a hell of alot.
By the way, is there a completely linux compatible laptop that comes without windows out there? Especially from the big guys : dell, IBM, etc... and no, i really dont dig winmodems..
I got a Tadpole Sparcbook 2 from work. About a month later, my apartment was broken into and it, among other things was stolen. So my girlfriend was calling all the local pawn shops to make sure they would keep an eye out for it. I came through the door on such a call and she said 'I'm tired of dealing with this guy, he wants to talk to you'. And so I answered and he asked what type of Laptop it was, and I replied with Tadpole Sparcbook 2. He said he didn't recognize the brand and if it was Intel or a Mac, and I said neither, it is a Sparc, and he replied that all computers were either Intel or Mac, even if rebranded something else. He asked if it ran DOS or Mac, and I said "SunOS". He said he didn't want to know the application I run on it, but what comes up when I turn it on before running anything. Finally I said 'If something comes into your store that looks like a laptop but you don't know what the hell it exactly is, it's probably mine...
Evidently no one else knew enough to buy it either, and so when they caught the guy a year later, that was the only thing of ours they had not managed to offload. When I went to the police to reclaim it, I was fully prepared to go to lengths to show I knew the password, but they said 'just take it'. Then an officer asked me if that was a good brand of laptop and would I recommend it for their college aged kid....
Oh the nostalgia working on that brings me... SunOS 4.1.1... As an aside, anyone know where I could get a replacement battery, software updates, and/or the little scsi plug adapter for this sucker?
Also have a new iBook (for when I need battery or don't want to take forever to do anything), and bought my Fiancee a PC laptop (linux/WinXP dual boot).
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
1 - Jump start. This is a beautiful box to ethernet over to your new server to install Solaris via jumpstart, especially if you need to do the install while off the net, e.g. a tripwired hardened server like a firewall running Checkpoint Firewall/1.
2 - CDE. So many of the admin tools for SunOne software are buggy in any version of X other than standard CDE. Examples are the directory/web server java based console.
3 - Portable development. Let's say that you are debugging Sparc assembly for a new device driver, or just testing your C code on a particular patch level of Solaris XYZ to find issues with the shared libraries, and you would rather sit in the coffee shop than in your dusty cube.
4 - Portable 64 bit processing. Particularly useful for math or physics types who want to crank out some data on the way to a conference or in the hotel room. (Yes, 1GB of RAM, but no limit on Swap. Not to mention REALLY big Ints.)
5 - Full solaris application testing environment. A wonderful thing to have to take to datacenters in other parts of the country which are not part of the corporate backbone yet to help you figure out why those new Websphere application servers cannot talk SSL LDAP over 636 to the new SunOne Directory Servers.
6 - I could keep going, but I have to get back to work.
jfs
The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.
A few years ago, I travelled around Europe supporting my company's product on site. I'd try to fix a bug, then send the patch back to the US to be built (no source code could ever touch a client's computer). Turnaround times were over a day, due to the time change.
Then I got one of these (for hrumptyhrumptens of thousands of dollars). It paid for itself in a month. I could do builds on-site, leading to turaround times of less than an hour. I no longer had to get a hotel for most support visits! I sure had a need for a non-Linux notebook.
Of course, it radiated so much heat out the keyboard that my hands would just drench the thing in sweat. That got a little gross. But it worked like a champ.
This product also may help marketing and small businesses with traveling demos. Wasn't so long ago we were held hostage by SCO to fill such portable *nix based needs. So, power to Sun!.. and best of luck to those who still believe there is a very lucrative business model below the application layer (or even for ubiquitous apps such as word processing, spreadsheets and such.. hilarious / evolve) HW and services are still sound though.
Why isn't there a price on the freaking page? If I wanted to talk to someone on the phone, I wouldn't be using the web!
I mean, I'd really like a solaris laptop. It would beat the hell out of my portable rack rig. But damn it, I don't want to have to fend off sales reptiles just to find out how much it is.
All I can think is that they want to "personalize" the price based on how much money they think they can get out of you.
Having a mobile sparc platform capable of running Oracle is something great in its own right; the cost of shipping an E250 to trade shows and customer sites for demos will be dramatically reduces, as well as engineers who can go on-site in more than one location per day to demo their app, I think it has some really good benefits.
found some good stuff there
this used to be a good site.
that's a good place for solaris software