4.2BSD/usr/doc/hints/02.t

.sh "PREFACE TO 1983 REVISION"
The VAX/UNIX Community has grown considerably since the last revision
of this paper in mid-1981.
It is safe to say that 4BSD systems represent a substantial portion of all
the VAXes sold.
Both the hardware available for building good VAX/UNIX systems and the
support services available to those doing the building have increased.
A significant portion of the systems now being built are being used
in business and private research environments in addition to those in the
traditional academic UNIX strongholds.
Many of these systems are based on binary licenses rather than the
educational source license so familiar at universities.
.LP
We hope this document will be of use to a variety of potential
VAX/UNIX users.
Even the purchaser who chooses to buy a complete system from DEC or
a mixed vendor system integrator should be assisted in making a better
choice by an increased knowledge of the integration decisions.
In the area of hardware, you will find that the sections on disks,
network interfaces, and printers have been heavily reworked.
In addition to the traditional emphasis on hardware selection, in this
revision we try to at least provide pointers to some of the other
relevant services available.
A list of hardware integrators we are aware of who have
developed expertise in the UNIX area is included.
In addition, some suppliers of 4BSD software are included.
.LP
This revision takes a different policy regarding
the inclusion
of specific prices for hardware:
\fINo explict prices are included.\fP
We do ocassionally include derived costs such as
the cost per Megabyte for a particular size disk system.
The are only meant to be approximate and are
calculated from current quantity one list prices.
.LP
It has been our experience that the inclusion of prices made the
release of this paper much more difficult without significantly
increasing its value.
We were obligated to pass the paper by every hardware vendor for
price checking and even so the contents remained accurate for only
a brief period.
In addition, regional pricing and discounting policys vary widely.
We have decided that rather than depend on us for prices, the
reader should narrow their
range of choices as much as possible and then do some hard bargaining
with their suppliers.  ``Everybody gets a discount.''