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Re: Debian on Ultrasparc 1/170E



On Wed, 2006-09-20 at 13:52 -0600, Jim MacKenzie wrote:
> Hi all.  I'm new to the list.
> 
> I have a Sun Ultra 1/170E that I got quite inexpensively a few weeks ago. 
> It has 640 MB of RAM and about 4 gigabytes of disk space.  I've installed 
> Debian etch on it without a GUI and it's working quite well.
> 
> Given the amount of RAM in it, I'm wondering if this would make a viable 
> workstation rather than a CLI-based server.  I don't have a monitor, 
> keyboard or mouse for it but have a couple of NEC MultiSyncs that I could 
> adapt to it easily enough, and I understand a Type 5 keyboard and mouse 
> won't cost too much.
How much hassel it will be depends a bit on what kind of graphics
hardware it has (support for some of the less common cards is variable)
and whether it requires a 13W3 monitor or not.  You can normally find
what you'd need on ebay for a relatively small amount of money.  As a
way of getting a working desktop machine, it's probably a little more
costly than buying a second hand PC w/ all bitzen, as a learning
experience / fun project it's price-less.

> If it'll be fast enough and usable with Gnome or KDE, I think it would be a 
> fun box to use that way.  (My primary desktop is a PIII-450 with 768 MB RAM, 
> and I think Ubuntu runs quite respectably on it [I couldn't get Debian to 
> properly recognize my video card]... and I have Gnome on a PII-400 with 384 
> MB and find it to be very usable.)  (I have a really good laptop, so no need 
> to take a collection for me.)
Fast enought to be usable is always a bit of a length of string type
question.  I would have thought the 'desktop experience' would be
comparable to a PII 400Mhz machine, if that's not fast enough then
changing to a lighter weight desktop environment might help.

In short, YMMV

HTH

Cheers,
 - Martin




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