A review of the Sun386i

[Thomas L. Zimmerman]

kahuna!newton at elroy.jpl.nasa.gov (Mike Newton):

[Mr. Newton complains about the monitor/keyboard cable, the keyboard, the
serial port and the operating system]

I guess what we have here is a case of "to each his own". I've had a 386i
for about a month now and have been quite happy with it.  In general it
has run every DOS and UNIX package that I have thrown at it, quickly and
with no changes to the code.  The system is compact, fairly quiet, and
easy to administer - yet is still a powerful UNIX workstation.  I much
prefer the new keyboard to the ones on our Sun3's and I like the combined
monitor/keyboard cable - its neater, and plenty long for my needs.  The
serial port is a small problem - I've had problems accessing it from DOS -
but mine will run kermit under UNIX at 9600 baud reliably.  As for SunOS
4.0 - I still haven't had any trouble with it, though Sun readily admits
that its buggy.  My only real complaint about the machine is the speed it
handles screen management in the DOS windows (slow, but not unacceptable).

>From what I saw at the SUG conference, the DOS windows have been
significantly improved under SunOS 4.0.1 (as well as the serial I/O).

I'd buy one again.

Lee Zimmerman        zimmer at nosc.mil
Naval Ocean Systems Center, San Diego