Hello David!

  DL> Some sun boxes (and maybe some versions of solaris) require
    > drives that can read cdrom with 512 byte sectors.

I think I'd read that in James Birdsall's excellent Sun Hardware
Reference.  I actually went as far as bidding on a Sun3 (probably a
3/60) a few months back on eBay, but was out-bid.

One thing that appeals to me about Sun systems that I rarely see on
PCs is the serial console option.  For a PC's initial CMOS setup, and
perhaps occasional tweaks, a display adaptor, monitor and keyboard
have to be attached.  Some will even refuse to boot without a display
adaptor.  :-(

I would be interested in hearing about potential NetBSD/i386 systems
that support a serial console.  I have a vague recollection that the
Intel Panther (re-badged by quite a few people) supported it, and I
wouldn't be surprised to learn that some DEC machines did.  Perhaps
embedded 386 boards (PC/104 etc) do.

Regards,
  - Andy Ball.                http://images.sunhelp.org/beerserver.jpg