[rescue] storing old Suns and parts

[Walter Belgers]

Hi, 

> On 8 Apr 2026, at 21:21, Lionel Peterson via rescue <rescue at sunhelp.org> wrote:
> I ask about your intentions because that will shape the responses.

Yes, that is a very valid question. I think I want to avoid throwing away systems, as I find that that's a shame. There's not really much more to it. I'll throw away stuff that is ubiquitous, but in my perception even a SPARCstation 4 is something of a rare machien. I enjoy getting systems, playing with them, but when that's done, they get shelved and sometimes given away or traded. So the answer to your question is: I want to rescue them from being thrown away until another caretaker is found.

A few things I should mention:
- there's multiple reasons for the garage, not just the machines but that doesn't really matter for the discussion
- there's more than just a few pizzaboxes that are maybe not-so-interesting (although the SS20 I mentioned as for instance dual ROSS CPUs and a video capture SBUS card).

In the collection are 2/120, 2/50, 3/50, 3/60, 3/110, 4/110, SS1000+storage array, Whitfield Diffie's T-SPARCstation 2, 386i, Wietse Venema's ELC, Voyager, almost all Blade's, SunRays, Sun Fire B1600, Tadpole/RDI stuff, and all the less interesting stuff (lot of 4/xx, Ultra, Blade, .. stuff). I think some of these boxes are rare and/or interesting and worth keeping (meaning: not throwing them away) although I might be biased - are these worth not being scrapped?

> A few years ago I significantly reduced my Sun collection, realizing that I could logically keep myself entertained/happy with one, high-spec U60 system, that various old SS/5, SS20, and Ultra 2 systems were just redundant and taking up too much space.

For me, it's not so much about running them. Sure, when I get them I like tinkering and trying out new OSes and maxing them out hardware wise. And I've used Sun machines as my main machine at work for a number of years, but now they are just on display, not turned on. They were all shelved in working order, but over time they still deteriorate. The systems in my previous mail might have not been turned on for 20+ years.

> Hope I didn't offend,

Not at all. I'm Dutch and (so) I appreciate you questioning my motives in a clear way :)

I also realise that with these systems getting older, and Sun not being around any more, the interest will also diminish. I believe something similar is happening with big PDP's, they used to be very sought after but as people who have them start passing away, while young people are not interested, they become harder to find good homes for.

@Ian: thanks for your tip on the boxes.

Regards,
Walter.