What's a good system to get for my first Sun experience?

[needlesskane]

Hello everyone. I'm actually at school right now in my university's Sun lab and I really like the look/feel of Solaris. I would like to get a system for learning/programming, but I have no idea what to get. These systems we have are terminals attached to a Sunfire V210 server which is wayyy out of my budget.

I found some Blade 100 systems on eBay, would those work? They seem relatively cheap. I would like to run Solaris smoothly and just write code and learn about UNIX.

Thanks in advance.

 

[dandan123]

Even an old system like the Ultra 10 should be fine.

 

[djr111]

when it come to $$$, Sun usually is not the cheapest. As Dandan123 stated, an ultra10 is a good start. You could also try one of their x86 versions like the v20z. I had quite a bit of exposure with them, they were nice, and were easy to configure. the v20z has a big brother, the v40z, but i'm pretty sure this one is way out of your financial league.

 

[SamBones]

I second dandan123's Ultra-10 suggestion. You can use PC type IDE drives in it, so you can buy one with very little space and upgrade it pretty cheaply.

 

[daFranze]

depending on what is the focus of learing: the OS itself? Or all the handling around: OpenBootProm, tty/a, ...
If it's just the OS: download Solaris x86 and install it on any PC Hardware. If it's more than the OS itself I agree with the others: Ultra5 or Ultra 10 (which are more or less the same; nota: they are more PCish than like a server) is a very good start. You might think about a Netra t1, which is affordable now as a used one.

Best Regards, Franz
--
UNIX System Manager from Munich, Germany

 

[Annihilannic]

Another option is to run the x86 version in a virtual machine (such as VMware's free VMware Server); I find that very convenient for experimenting.

Annihilannic.

 

[gaz0181]

Yeah go for an ultra 5 or 10. I have an ultra 5 that I picked up a year or so ago on ebay for £20. Does the job fine - no problems whatsoever. Takes standard PC ide disks too which is a bonus...

 

[dandan123]

I got an Ultra 10 off ebay for $20 a year ago, it was just the box, no keyboard or monitor.

 

[unixsavy]

I would suggest the Sun Ultra 2 it's always a pleaser.
This will give you native scsi for expansion. While I like the Ultra 10 and the pci bus... For my purposes the Ultra 2
was the way to go, if only for the scsi drives vs. ide.
Not that you can't add a card to a 10 but native is simpler.

 

[cndcadams]

Well;

I have an Ultra 10 and an Ultra60. Both are fine and as far as un ultra 2 it is a solid box. Personally I like the Ultra 60. It has a higher capacity for memory than does an ultra10 and also has a second cpu slot. The ultra 2 uses sbus cards where the Ultra 10 and 60 has pci slots.

just my 2 cents.

CA

 

[TechCarnivore]

If you're trying to learn Unix, why not install Solaris 10 x86 on an old PC? That's what I did. I'm guessing it would be easier to get a hold of an older intel based PC, than a Sparc system...