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Ask HN: Most practical Sun (not Oracle) workstation?

2 points by rlawson ↗ HN
As a long time Java dev I have gotten nostalgic about Sun (pre-Oracle) and would like to have a piece of sun branded hardware. Ideally it would be practical as well (Java/Python dev). A quick browse of ebay tells me the Sparc workstations have entered collector status. Maybe something towards the end of Sun's lifetime? Or buy a Java workstation case and put modern components in it? What does HN suggest?

10 comments

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h2odragon
Nah, go all out and get one of the full rack systems. The SuperSPARC 2000 is a lovely machine that even has pretty blinkenlights on the back of the CPU cards.
rlawson
I would love too but that may be marriage ending :)
__d
Honestly, there is nothing made by Sun that approaches, even remotely, the performance of a cheap modern laptop. As a Java/Python dev, using one is like typing with one hand tied behind your back.

That said, if you want the retro-computing vibe, for me the peak of Sun's industrial design was the SPARCstation 1/1+ pizza box, with matching style mono CRT, and the matching external SCSI DAT drive, CD drive, and extension hard drive. To me, they're superior industrial design to any of the Apple machines, and are as iconic as the NeXT cube.

From a technology point of view, the sun4d machines (a SPARCserver 1000 is the more practical) are awesome. Load the SS1000 up with 4 CPU cards (8 CPUs), and enjoy what was some of the best performance of its era. But beware, they need a lot of watts and weigh a ton.

warrenm
fwiw ... SunOS/Solaris never supported Java as consistently as Windows

Sun's own JVM worked differently under Solaris & Windows ...leading to the disparaging acronym "WODE" - Write Once, Debug Everywhere :)

rlawson
I never ran into this personally (mainly ran Tomcat on Solaris and developed on Windows) back in the day - but I don't doubt that this happened given the complexity in covering such different OS's
warrenm
it was a pretty big issue at least among GUI apps (and a not insignificant one among CLI apps)
matt_s
We had these little Sun servers that looked like college style mini-fridges. Sun Microsystems Ultra Enterprise 450 Workgroup Server [0] - that would be a nice retro but super expensive ($700-1500) case to build a custom PC in. Gut it and put some liquid cooled gaming PC build in there, tons of room.

[0] https://dcomcomputers.com/sun-e450-enterprise-450-2400mhz-1g...

rlawson
We had one of those at my employer's old office that we used for a while as a coffee table. I wish I had grabbed it when it was being given away!
brudgers
What does HN suggest?

Another hobby? Some Sun swag instead? Biting the bullet and buying what you want?

I mean the specifics of this isn't something where what works for me is going to work for you. And vice versa. It's your nostalgia, your money, and your time.

To me, it looks like a tinkering hobby. There are lots of things to tinker on. Sun workstations look like one where getting stuff to work smoothly or run at all is a rabbit hole of eBay searches without the wealth to just buy whatever you want.

It's premium GAS or parts collecting with finding replacement custom ASIC's and soldering bad caps on disc controllers. Sun workstations aren't C64's or even Amigas.

rlawson
Good point on supporting the complexity of these devices. As I did some research realized that's more headache than I want.

What I ended up doing was buying mint Java workstation since it has cool Java logo on front and nice big Sun Microsystems on side of case. Plus it has a roomy case that isn't too hard to retrofit. I am gutting it and putting in modern parts.