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What do do with these machines?
I've an old G4 rotting in my attic, and just grabbed a Sun Ultra 10, Silicon Graphics Indigo and a Compaq Alpha XP1000 that were being tossed out at work.
I have no pressing need for any of them, simply nostalgia and I hate to see old workhorses die. Any suggestions? I thought I might use one for http log analysis and another so my wife can play around in R. Maybe a mirror server for the one at NOC, I dunno. I don't really NEED them, just like I don't need the dozen old stereos, but... Any comments on the machines themselves? Any information would be appreciated. Thanks! Bill |
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Personally, I use Ultra 10's for DNS, NTP, & syslog servers. Yeah, they aren't speed demons, but for single (or couple) purpose servers in a home environment, they are more than adequate. Use them to learn more. |
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Get OS X Leopard and stick it on that G4.
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"UNIX is basically a simple operating system, but you have to be a genius to understand the simplicity." MacBook Pro (Darwin 9), iMac (Darwin 9), iPod Touch (Darwin 9), Dell Optiplex GX620 (FreeBSD 7.1-STABLE) |
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I would second ocicat's idea- simple network infrastructure responsibilities can easily be tasked out to those older machines. Configuring them in a redundant setup makes the especially relevant, as well as teaching yourself some new skills. They are the ultimate sandboxes, and they just cost you nothing. Have fun!
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Network Firefighter |
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Thanks for the replies!
I think I'm going to install OSX on the G4, Solaris 10 on the SPARC, and maybe FreeBSD or a hobbiest license of Tru64 on the Alpha. Maybe it's me, but I'm still amazed that these can be tossed. |
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They are plenty good enough for simple file servers and infrastructure kinds of things. Nothing heavy, but plenty good enough. I think you will enjoy them. |
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I run OpenBSD 4.3-current on all of my Ultra 10's, & not only is installation straight-forward, but there is a natural feel of the OS to the hardware. Given that Theo likes his older Sun hardware, it has been a priority of the project to support it.
FWIW. |
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I didn't know that about OpenBSD, I'll try it out while pursuing the original Tru64 install disks.
Curious, other than a hobbiest perspective or as a sandbox machine, how do these compare to an entry-level webserver like this: Intel Celeron 2.0 GHz 80GB Hard Drive 512 MB RAM or this: Intel Xeon 3040 Dual-core Conroe Processor 250GB Hard Drive 1024 MB RAM I'm not really looking to deploy them, just get a feel for where they stand. I know there was a lot of criticism of the x86 chipsets and their offspring compared to Alpha and SPARC, and that clock speed is irrelevant. I confess that I have only a few years of experience, so the articles get rather murky. Thanks for your comments! Bill |
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