Hello Alan!

  AP> The 386 I had was an sx/40, and was quite a fast board
    > in its time.

I sometimes wonder if AMD's 40MHz 386 DX wasn't the peak of
PC microprocessor development.  Admittedly my criteria are
probably different from many other people's.

  AP> ...the Sun 3 also lets me drag full windows round the
    > screen fine even if it is only B&W...

Can I configure X to drag just a frame around, rather than
the window complete with contents?

  AP> I put together this 386 cause I got a real nice
    > slimline case, and had the bits lying around.

I'm currently building a 25MHz 386 SX machine, in fact I'm
downloading NetBSD/i386 sets via a DOS FTP client right now.
It sounds insane, but if this 'proof of concept' works I can
think about embedding NetBSD on PC/104 boards less than 10cm
(4") square.

  AP> This sun seems fast enough for apps, although I
    > wouldn't fancy my chances compiling stuff on it.  It
    > boots quick, loads X quick (faster than the 386!!!!),
    > and runs fine.

There you go, I knew we'd get back on-topic eventually! <g>
I can believe it would be at least comparible with a 386 SX
machine, because of the SX 16-bit bus (amongst other things
:-)

  AP> Only bitch is the mouse. I've got the proper mat for
    > it, but it is just a pain...

The mouse on the Sun 3/50?  What's wrong with it?  Isn't it
a nice optical mouse?  When I manage to pick up a Sun 3, I
will probably use it without a mouse, even if I use a
monitor and keyboard.

  AP> Oh yeah and the keyboard sucks big time!

(I'd probably run it headless though ;-)

Regards,
  - Andy.