What old hardware to pick up?

[Crusader]

I want to mess around with something new. I know my way around Windows, Classic, X, and some Linux distros. What I want to do now is see what else is out there. I don't know a lot but this is what I want to look at:

SGI
Sun
nExt
Be

I'd like to poke around in one of those boxes, maybe set it up as a terminal and see what I can see. The problem I have is that I do not know where to begin. What platform should I try? Which hardware would be cooler? SGI and Sun systems would be the easiest to acquire, but a nExt or Be box would be very cool. Help me out, I want to learn.

[Luca]

Well, I've seen a number of old Sun boxes on eBay for fairly cheap. Good luck getting a BeBox though - I've only seen one, ever, and it was going for a HUGE amount of money.

[Wickers]

I thought you could load BeOS (Haiku, OpenBeOS) on standard x86 hardware. ( :confused: ) No need to buy a special 'box' for it.

[Luca]

Oh yes, you can. I'm just saying that an actual BeBox, made by the Be corporation, will be very expensive.

I think getting an older x86 box, like a Pentium II or III, will suit you well. Be has problems with the latest hardware (i.e., Pentium 4s and Athlon XPs). So if you get a nice PIII, you should be able to run Be and Linux. Maybe OS/2 as well (although I don't know much about OS/2 beyond being aware of its existence).

[LoCash]

I'd leave it between a Sun and an SGI for practical values. I think IRIX is more fun, but Sun iron might be more practical if you're trying to pick up more widespread marketable skills.

You can get an SGI 02 on ebay pretty cheap, they practically give away Indys now. An 02 is a good starter box though. I used to have an indy, Indigo2, and an Onyx. They've all sense been sold though. In fact, in my computer setup picture on the AI community site, you can still see all three SGI boxen ;)

[kretara]

Sun could be more useful in the long run.
I just picked up a Sun Ultra 10 (300mhz) with 256mb RAM for $99.00
Not too bad. Its still a pretty fast computer.
The Sun PCI based workstations (Ultra 5, 10 and I believe 60) are very affordable when compared to the non-pci based Netra line which is much more expensive (and somewhat newer).

[Res]

Sun all the way. There are a lot more call for system administrators who know Solaris then there are for SGI's IRIX administrators (and you can pick up SUN products fairly cheap on e-bay).

[Crusader]

Alright, I guess I'll be picking up a Sun or SGI box, due to that fact that nExt boxen are about as readily available as the Apple Network Servers. I couldn't even find a page about BeBoxes so that's out too.

My question now is, are there any good Sun or SGI "fansites" out in the 'net, kinda in the same vein as Apple-History, Thisoldmac, or such like?