Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 24th Oct 2005 15:40 UTC
"Despite its recent announcement of servers based on AMD64 CPUs, Sun Microsystems is still gung-ho about its 64-bit UltraSPARC computers. The newest addition to Sun's workstation array is the portable Ultra 3 Mobile Workstation. At first glance you might think it's a fancy-looking notebook system, but on closer inspection you'll discover that it's got all the power of a Sun Blade workstation in a fraction of the size."
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Sun Microsystems is not trying to compete with Tadpole (now owned by General Dynamics) or Naturetech. It seems to be the case that the Ultra 3 line of notebook computers are based on Tadpole and Naturetech products. The 15 inch models come from Tadpole, while the 17 inch widescreen is a Naturetech product. Sun is just a reseller of these notebooks.
Now I shall discuss the pricing. Compared to other notebook computers these are expensive. But compared to the first laptops and other expenses (cars, house, investments), they are not so expensive and I would not mind paying for one. For example, a typical car costs in the range of $30,000 to $60,000+, while a decent house in the bay area is about $850,000 to $1.3 million. Now $6,000 to $10,000 for a quality notebook computer does not seem like much. It has decent battery life, performance, screen resolution (bigger is not always better for notebooks), ECC memory, a reliable operating system, and more. It would be able to run all the applications I want (StarOffice, a desktop environment, Flash player, web browser, email client, image manipulation program, Java programs, Acrobat Reader 7, etc). I know that this is targeted at organizations that need to work with Solaris/Sparc applications, but my point is that it can make a decent notebook for many individuals too.
I can live with the 802.11b and the 2D video card, because I would still be able to get the job done reliably on a computer integrated by a single vendor.
If I were to get one of these, it would be the one based on the Tadpole Viper, as in my opinion it offers the best combination of mobility and capability.
However, these computers are not for everybody.
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