19990723: SSEC support for DEC

>From: Denise Laitsch <address@hidden>
>Organization: SSEC
>Keywords: 199907231605.KAA25738 Digital Unix hardware

Denise,

>SSEC is getting more and more interested in supporting Dec under the
>MUG. On this end of things, we've found a way to pay for testing and
>software changes, but no one has the right type of dollars for a
>computer.
>
>So, I'm wondering if you think Unidata would benefit sufficiently from
>the MUG offering DEC support to the extent that they would be interested
>in buying a Dec box for SSEC?

I don't think so (but I am sending this to Joanne in case she would
like to add anything).  The number of Digital Unix users in our
community appears to be dwindling rapidly.  I added support for Digital
Unix in our distribution of McIDAS to put our distribution on par with
other Unidata offerings (e.g. netCDF, UDUNITS, LDM, GEMPAK, etc.).

>I thought I'd see if this appealed to you before approaching this from
>the contracting end.

Thanks for touching base on this.  Is TASC (i.e. Randy Arliss) interested
enough to provide you the platform you seek?

Before I go, I would like to add that full support of Linux by SSEC
would be a lot more attractive to us (and we have already done the
porting work).  The number of Linux sites that Unidata has keeps
growing even though we routinely tell our users that we believe Sun
Solaris x86 to be a superior environment.

Linux is not only rapidly gaining market share in all areas of
computing, but it runs on very cheap PC hardware (a fully equipped
"muscle" PC (e.g. 450 Mhz Pentium II/III) right now costs on the order
of $1800 with large monitor (21"), lots of RAM (256 MB), and lots of
disk (18 GB), ethernet, sound, etc.).

>Many thanks,

Talk to you later...

Tom
--
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* Tom Yoksas                                             UCAR Unidata Program *
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