[GRASS-user] install GRASS on linux, which is better -DELL Precision 690n or SUN Ultra 40 M2

[Brent Wood]

Hi,


I think GRASS & most of it's dependencies & related applications are 
much better tried, & may be better supported on Linux than Solaris. 
However, I'd rate Sun hardware as generally superior to Dell. Also if I 
read the specs correctly, the Sun has 2 dual core CPU's, the Dell has 
one, so with 15 users & everything else being comparable, the Sun should 
be a better platform for your purposes.

I guess someone using Solaris may confirm that everything works fine, 
but with Linux, you pretty much know it will, so I suggest seeing if Sun 
will ship with Linux instead (generally I believe they will) & if so, go 
that way.

I'd also check that ALL the packages you want to run will work OK in a 
64 bit environment. I'm still occasionally bitten by finding a 32bit app 
that won't run on 64bit (such as highly optimised applications with some 
assembler in them).


Cheers

Brent Wood

> Hi, All
>
> Need to make decision for purchasing a computer to install Linux and 
> grass on it. I am looking at dell and sun – Ultra 40 M2 and Dell 
> Precision 690n.
>
> Maximum users for using grass will be around 15 – for a GIS course.
>
> Could you commend on this and suggest some alternatives, if the 
> following are not the best choices? Thanks.
>
> Jun
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> Ultra 40 M2 $3,745
> Sun Ultra 40 M2 Workstation. 2 x AMD Opteron 1207 Rev F Model 2214 
> (2.2 GHz/dual-core) processor, 8GB (4x2GB) DDR-667 ECC memory, 1 x 
> 250GB 7200 rpm SATA HDD with Solaris 10 pre-installed, NVIDIA Quadro 
> FX1500 PCI-Express graphics card, DVD Dual, 2 x 10/100/1000 Ethernet, 
> two x16 PCI Express slots, two x8 PCI Express slots, one legacy PCI 
> slot. Standard Configuration. RoHS-6 Compliant.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
>
> BUILD YOUR SYSTEM $3,326.80
> Dell Precision Workstation 690n - 750W Dual Core Intel® Xeon® 
> Processor 5160 3.00GHz, 4MB L2,1333 edit
> Operating System Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS v4 for EM64T 64bit system 
> w/ 1 YR RHN, w/ Media edit
> 2nd Processor None edit
> Memory 4GB, DDR2 SDRAM FBD Memory, 667MHz, ECC (4 DIMMS) edit
> Graphic Cards 128MB PCIe x16 nVidia Quadro NVS 285, Dual DVI or Dual 
> VGA Capable edit
> Boot Hard Drive 250GB SATA 3.0Gb/s,7200 RPM Hard Drive with 8MB 
> DataBurst Cache™ edit
> CD-ROM, DVD, and Read-Write Devices 48X CD-ROM edit
> 2nd Hard Drive 250GB SATA 3.0Gb/s,7200 RPM Hard Drive with 8MB 
> DataBurst Cache™ edit
>
>