I am considering purchasing an alpha workstation class machine
for software development on Unix (NetBSD of course) and NT.
One consideration is that I want to be able to run Alpha/NT on
it for doing NT development for work.  However, I want to have a
system that will work well with NetBSD for doing non-NT stuff.

I have looked through the NetBSD/alpha FAQ for information and
have scanned the port-alpha mailing list archive.  I have also
looked at the DEC's WWW Alpha pages.  Right now I am suffering from
information overload.  I was wondering if anyone has suggestions,
recommendations, or experience about which alpha and hardware
choices to select.

In addition to just looking for advice, I have some specific
questions or perhaps requirements too:

	1) Is it possible to boot both Alpha/NT and NetBSD on the
	same box?  The FAQ says that the SRM console is needed
	to boot NetBSD, but does that preclude booting NT without
	flashing some NT specific firmware?

	2) Is it possible to have some kind of "dual boot" setup
	on a Alpha to boot either NT or NetBSD?  On the same disk?
	On different disks?  I would assume that if the SRM console
	works with NT that I could at least choose which drive
	(and OS) to boot from at the SRM boot prompt?

	3) I would like to run X11 on NetBSD.  Are there any graphics
	cards that are supported and work well with both OSes?

	4) I would prefer a PCI bus for expansion so I can use the
	same (low-cost) cards as my Intel boxes do.  I would also
	like an AT or PS/2 style keyboard and mice interface so I
	can use my ergonomic keyboard and trackball.

	5) Which resellers or other sales outlets do you recommend
	for purchasing Alpha hardware at?

[disclaimer] I apologize ahead of time for asking about stuff that
concerns NT; I am not a fan of NT at all.  However, it looks like
I could use something at home to do cross-platform development on.
I've been thinking about an alpha for NetBSD for a while, and
needing another box at home for NT seems like a good chance to
rationalize it (:-).

Thanks for any information!
| Joe Burger   U of WI-Madison Computer Sciences| "Blessed are the Peacemakers"
| "bolo"       bolo@cs.wisc.edu   uwvax!bolo    | -- Jesus Christ, endorsing
|              http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~bolo/    | Samuel Colt's Revolvers