SunOS 4.0 and memory

[Norm Finn]

Our experience with 4.0.1/4.0.3 and 3/50s and Clearpoint memories:

1) Out-of-the-box 4.0.x is horribly slow on a 4M 3/50.  Slow as in
   almost unuseable if you're used to 3.x, and obviously slow if you've
   never seen a Sun in your life.
2) If you follow all the suggestions in Sun's documentation to strip
   the system to its bare bones, you can get a 3/50 that is definitely
   slower on the average than 3.x, but still useable.  It is especially
   annoying when you're running makes and textedits at the same time.
   Call it a half-fast system :-).
3) If you get a 4M from Clearpoint to upgrade to 8M total, and strip the
   OS down, you have a machine that is almost always faster under 4.0.x
   than it was under 3.x.  We haven't tried a non-stripped 4.0.x on 8M.

We've had half a dozen upgraded 3/50s running for several months, now, and
have experienced no failures.  You can rip the extra memory out if a 3/50
breaks and you have a Sun service contract, and put it back when the FE
leaves.  The Clearpoint documentation is very good.

Norm Finn                       domain:   norm at ultra.com
Ultra Network Technologies      Internet: ultra!norm at ames.arc.nasa.gov
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