> From port-alpha-owner-ross=teraflop.com@NetBSD.ORG Wed May 27 15:30:54 1998
> Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 15:32:22 -0700
> From: John <jbarbee@singular.com>
> Organization: Singular Solutions
> To: port-alpha@NetBSD.ORG
> Subject: utility of alpha port
>
> My boss just bought a dec alphastation 200 at an auction and we're
> searching for alternatives to dec unix and nt.  We are wondering if
> anyone has used the alpha port effectively in a business environment. 
> From the mailing list archives it seems that the alpha is still in its
> development stages and there are still a lot of problems that would
> prevent it from being a viable option.  Is this an accurate
> perspective?  Please respond.
>
> tia
> john
>

In my somewhat biased perspective, I think it is running quite well now.
I would say most of us ARE running it at work, and not at home, actually.
I certainly don't have any at home.

The main limitation for home use, and some business uses, is that we do not,
in general, support X servers. The X clients are no problem, but only the
Multia TGA has a server right now. Fixing this would require some hackers
willing and able to deal with pci, the kernel, device drivers, linux 
compatibility, and of course, X11 itself. Your present netbsd developers
do have this expertise but in general we have been putting our efforts
into other directions. (When we want an X server here we just use a NetBSD
PC, a commercial unix workstation, or an X terminal.)

It is not known how many of the NetBSD packages run on alpha, but it certainly
is not 100% of them.

Ross Harvey