From owner-freebsd-sparc Tue Dec 16 17:55:04 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id RAA23167 for sparc-outgoing; Tue, 16 Dec 1997 17:55:04 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-sparc@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from mail.xmission.com (mail.xmission.com [198.60.22.22]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id RAA22592 for ; Tue, 16 Dec 1997 17:49:40 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from softweyr@xmission.com) Received: from xmission.com [199.104.124.49] by mail.xmission.com with esmtp (Exim 1.73 #4) id 0xi8cE-00025m-00; Tue, 16 Dec 1997 18:49:38 -0700 Message-ID: <34973157.79C96A51@xmission.com> Date: Tue, 16 Dec 1997 18:56:39 -0700 From: Wes Peters Organization: Softweyr LLC X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.04 [en] (X11; I; FreeBSD 2.2.5-RELEASE i386) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "Robert S. Sciuk" CC: freebsd-sparc@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Freeloading FreeBSD for Free -- NOT! References: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-sparc@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Robert S. Sciuk wrote: > I detect a minor problem in the Sun involvement in this project (see the > FAQ sent earlier -- Thanks Jason/Dale ). They seem to want to be driving > the ultrasparc (64Bit) chip sales with FreeBSD, in which case they should > put out a PCI board and processors priced cheaply enough to allow us to > hack together our own (preferably SMP) boxes ... and thus justify their > investment ... They're planning on it. Now, when they say competitive pricing, I assume they mean competitive with high-end Pentium II SMP boards, not competitive with low-end TX motherboards for $69, with $89 Pentium processors on them. Caveat Programmor! ;^) > FreeBSD users on the other hand, typically have access to miled out legacy > boxes (I know mine is) ... and I'm too cheap to shell out for the Solaris > 2.6 release, never mind an ultrasparc server. To be sure, my evidence is > anecdotal, my opinion, and may not be indicative of the `typical' FreeBSD > user. When Sun finds out about me (and my old IPX) ... will they pull the > plug?? 8-) Nah, this is Sun. They're happy to have you running *any* Sun hardware, because they figure if you like it enough, you'll eventually get your employer, your customers, or maybe even your wife to buy some *new* Sun hardware. ;^) Plus, if you understand who SME's customers are, you'll understand what *their* thrust for FreeBSD is going to be. I'm toying with the idea of asking Fujitsu to get involved with this, since I am a (very very small- scale) customer of theirs. Wouldn't that be cool, to have SME *and* Fujitsu Microelectronics sponsoring FreeBSD-SPARC development? ;^) -- "Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?" Wes Peters Softweyr LLC http://www.xmission.com/~softweyr softweyr@xmission.com