We bought ours from Microway (http://www.microway.com). We're very happy with
the machine (worked from the box). If you're familiar with Linux, you'll get
along fine with it.
However, we so far have the impression that alpha/linux is a little less
mature than the intel version. I guess there are fewer beta-testers.
Be warned also that 64 bit pointers make the compiler choke on a lot of legacy
'C' code...
The jury is still out on whether buying the commercial fortran compiler from
Microway was a good move.. We hear there is something from NAG that may be
woth using.
Cheers
Andrew