Sun SPARCstation IPX
Hacker ApprovedRanked 4 of 9 workstations by recommenders
Recommended as a compact Solaris workstation with a good keyboard and display; critics call it slow, unreliable and prone to overheating.
Recommended as a compact Solaris workstation with a good keyboard and display; critics call it slow, unreliable and prone to overheating.
17 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 12
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 71%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 12 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Widely used Solaris workstation
“Not the greatest UNIX workstation in the world, but we had rooms full of them at my uni”
Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “Restoring a Sun SPARCstation IPX Part 1: PSU and Nvram” “The IPX was the high volume, low cost, face-for-the-user Solaris box”
Comment from 10 Mar 2026 in “Restoring a Sun SPARCstation IPX Part 1: PSU and Nvram” Collectible and fun project box
“I had one on my desk and eventually a collection of Sparc 2, 10's and a V in my garage.”
Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “Restoring a Sun SPARCstation IPX Part 1: PSU and Nvram” “It makes for a pretty good project box as one of the smaller SPARC machines.”
Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “Restoring a Sun SPARCstation IPX Part 1: PSU and Nvram”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Slow and underpowered
“For the price, these Sun workstations were slow as hell to me.”
Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “Restoring a Sun SPARCstation IPX Part 1: PSU and Nvram” “They were unreliable, slow, and just absolutely miserable because they created endless complaints.”
Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “Restoring a Sun SPARCstation IPX Part 1: PSU and Nvram” “underpowered and undercooled, which led to frequent overheating and component failures”
Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “Restoring a Sun SPARCstation IPX Part 1: PSU and Nvram” Unreliable, prone to failure
“They were unreliable, slow, and just absolutely miserable because they created endless complaints.”
Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “Restoring a Sun SPARCstation IPX Part 1: PSU and Nvram” “underpowered and undercooled, which led to frequent overheating and component failures”
Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “Restoring a Sun SPARCstation IPX Part 1: PSU and Nvram” Poorly built, cheap-feeling hardware
“these machines were largely always hacked together piles of garbage, they had just cost a lot more”
Comment from 1 Jun 2026 in “Linux/M68k” “Yeah it was a real piece of junk”
Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “Restoring a Sun SPARCstation IPX Part 1: PSU and Nvram” Poor interactive and remote performance
“Just every single interactive aspect of them was worse in every possible way”
Comment from 21 Mar 2026 in “Restoring a Sun SPARCstation IPX Part 1: PSU and Nvram” “even just using it as an x client for a remote build server it was horrible”
Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “Restoring a Sun SPARCstation IPX Part 1: PSU and Nvram”
Other workstations people recommend
The four most recommended other workstations, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mac Pro | 49 | 92 | 35% | 11 | 16 yrs10 owners | — |
| Tinybox by tinygrad | 25 | 31 | 45% | 4 | — | — |
| Dell Precision | 23 | 12 | 66% | 9 | 10 yrs6 owners | — |
| Sun SPARCstation IPXThis page | 12 | 5 | 71% | 4 | — | Approved |
| SGI Indy | 9 | 2 | 82% | 6 | — | — |
What people said
14 of the 19 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“these machines were largely always hacked together piles of garbage, they had just cost a lot more”
“Just every single interactive aspect of them was worse in every possible way”
“The IPX was the high volume, low cost, face-for-the-user Solaris box”
“For the price, these Sun workstations were slow as hell to me.”
“I love Sun's design language and the IPX cases are cute.”
“It makes for a pretty good project box as one of the smaller SPARC machines.”
“Great keyboard, great display, great OS. It was fast enough and a great terminal to bigger Sparcs if you needed it.”
“I had one on my desk and eventually a collection of Sparc 2, 10's and a V in my garage.”
“Not the greatest UNIX workstation in the world, but we had rooms full of them at my uni”
“They were unreliable, slow, and just absolutely miserable because they created endless complaints.”
“even just using it as an x client for a remote build server it was horrible”
“The hard drive sounds like grinding metal. I've been trying to get rid of it for years.”
“Yeah it was a real piece of junk”
“underpowered and undercooled, which led to frequent overheating and component failures”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.