Re: [cobalt-users] RaQ3 Kernel update 4.0.1 & Bus Speed

[Chris Adams <cmadams@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Once upon a time, Wayne Sagar <wsagar@xxxxxxxx> said:
> Even though the -3's are becoming orphans.. I hope Sun/Cobalt will
> recognize that there are a LOT of them out there and abandoning them
> without support is not going to be good business practice. 
> 
> Why upgrade to a -4 when a year from now they may decide to abandon that
> machine as well and drop support for it also?

That is my feeling exactly.  We still have ~50 RaQ1s and ~25 RaQ2s to go
along with ~25 RaQ3s.  Why should we buy any more Cobalts, when we've
seen how fast they'll drop a (not very old) product in favor of a new
one?

Web hosting is a competitive business.  You can't stand still on the
services you offer.  However, the only way to advance with Cobalt is to
do "forklift upgrades" (replace all hardware) every year or two.  It is
hard to grow a business when you are constantly having to go back and
replace perfectly good hardware just because the company that sold it to
you doesn't stand behind it anymore.

How hard would it have been for them to add the web and email domain
alias options from the RaQ4 to the RaQ3, or the "enable FrontPage"
option from the RaQ2 to the RaQ1?  I don't expect to see PHP on a RaQ1,
but what about an easy interface to managing SSL?

Cobalt is selling the RaQs as web hosting "appliances"; instead they
should market them like cars (with the RaQ3 being the obsolete 2000
model).  That may be fine for the small to mid-size company that has a
RaQ or two to host their corporate website, but it just doesn't work for
an ISP doing larger scale web hosting.

And since Sun is now pushing this, I am NOT including any SPARCs in my
shopping list for RaQ replacements.  Screw me once, shame on you.  Screw
me twice, shame on me.
-- 
Chris Adams <cmadams@xxxxxxxxxx>
Systems and Network Administrator - HiWAAY Internet Services
I don't speak for anybody but myself - that's enough trouble.