Honestly, there is nothing made by Sun that approaches, even remotely, the performance of a cheap modern laptop. As a Java/Python dev, using one is like typing

Honestly, there is nothing made by Sun that approaches, even remotely, the performance of a cheap modern laptop. As a Java/Python dev, using one is like typing with one hand tied behind your back. That said, if you want the retro-computing vibe, for me the peak of Sun's industrial design was the SPARCstation 1/1+ pizza box, with matching style mono CRT, and the matching external SCSI DAT drive, CD drive, and extension hard drive. To me, they're superior industrial design to any of the Apple machines, and are as iconic as the NeXT cube. From a technology point of view, the sun4d machines (a SPARCserver 1000 is the more practical) are awesome. Load the SS1000 up with 4 CPU cards (8 CPUs), and enjoy what was some of the best performance of its era. But beware, they need a lot of watts and weigh a ton.