I was using it as simply a second workstation while my main
workstation was
down, and one that my girlfriend could use while I had my laptop
and tablet
with me. However, I wouldn't mind putting it to more well-deserved
uses,
like an LDAP server, backup server, db server, etc. So, I was
wondering what
all the sparc experts out there think an Ultra 5 would be well
suited for :)
I was using one as a management box until recently - installed Sarge
and nagios - it was plenty fast enough for the job.
I have also used one as a slave DNS/Mail server.
In the case of a backup server, I have a connor raid box I was
considering
connecting, but I think the hardware limitation on this particular
box is
12GB, so it might not be worthwhile (I do some dv editing on my
main machine,
so I have several hundred GB's of data).
The IDE limitation is 120GB (ish) - however, this does not mean it
wouldn't be a useful backup box - stick a USB card in, very cheap
these days, and attach an external drive.
Or pick up a cheap SCSI card - about £20 from eBay and one of the 7
or 12 slot external enclosures and have yourself a nice RAID backup :-)
The Ultra 5's (and 10's) still make remarkable good workhorses in
these days of multi-core, multi-gigahertz machines .... they make
wonderful development boxes too...
HTH.
Cheers,
Pete.