Getting Started, Documentation, Tips & Tricks

After some time enjoying the Nekochan Wiki, I suppose it's time I actually made a forum account. I'm mostly a PowerPC nerd (recovering AIX ex-sysadmin running my home server off a POWER6, still using a quad G5, typing this post in my internal build of TenFourFox 15), but I have a serious soft spot for the Indy because I remember lusting after it in college and got to actually use one as my desk workstation as an undergraduate at the Salk Institute one summer. Naturally, I took my picture with an IndyCam (still on my personal home page) and played a lot of DOOM and screwed around with this Internet thing and at times actually used it for visualization and real work, even though we didn't have the stereo glasses. However, they were primarily an Xterm and OSF/1 shop in those days, if anyone here remembers that. I also particularly collect weird workstations: I have a Solbourne S3000 (and the case), a BeBox/133, and just finished restoring an HP 9000/350. And tons of beige Mac and 8-bit Commodore gear around here as well.

I picked up a low-end Indy (I mean low: original 100MHz R4K, 8-bit XL, 32MB RAM) from a fellow collector. It came with the Indy, IRIX 6.5 and .20 overlay, keyboard (sadly busted), mousepad, the Indy zippered duffel case, and an Indy Presenter (but no cable! ARGH!). It boots great and works well, but my monitor doesn't know how to ignore SoG even though I have a real SGI 13w3->VGA converter (so I get that aggravating tint), and it's a bit pokey, so I'm waiting for an R4600SC and 24-bit XL and more RAM I got at a very nice price, plus an external sync separator so I can enjoy 24-bit colour without having to have the green gamma cranked down. Getting back into IRIX makes me realize how much I missed it and now I'm seriously tempted to pick up an O2 or an Octane so the Indy has some company.

I should post pictures of the office and the home server room for yuks.

Anyway, nice to join the board and if anyone has any leads on a Presenter cable, I'd sure love to get it working.

Well, welcome aboard.

The main reason why I no longer use any indy myself is due to the memory limitation (256MB doesn't cut it anymore), and the fact that it's getting somewhat difficult to find reasonably priced ram for such machine (it's almost cheaper to get an O2). Yet, the indy is a fantastic machine. I used it as a workstation for many years and then as a shell box; but my current projects require some beefier hardware (even with very optimized workloads and a very fast IO subsystem).

Before you decide if you would like to move towards an O2 or Octane, I suggest that you first figure out which applications/tasks you would like to run on your SGI, as you know, those "niche" machines are very good in specific assignments; i.e. running FP intensive tasks, compilation, video, streaming, etc. The O2 is a different world from the Octane, it's not worse or better, it just targets different customers (IMHO). As I see it, they're not really general purpose machines, although, some may argue that the "workstation" class (indigo, indy, o2, and a few others) are/were.

To add a bit of historical facts to this thread, SGI's corporate mailserver "Crom" (if I remember correctly) was a challenge L, all the way through 2008: crom.corp.sgi.com. Not so bad for a machine that was discontinued 10 years earlier. Crom also ran the backup tape library, with the help of another challenge and about half a dozen scsi disks.

The O2 could be, for instance, a terrific shell server with its gig of ram, low power consumption, mirrored disks (in the case of the R5/7k), 100MBps integrated nic and it's not really loud (unless you use some seagate ) But you already know all that. In any case, glad you joined, just put this excellent hardware to good use.

Be careful, you might need a PROM update to be able to use an R4600SC in your Indy if its PROM is too old.

Welcome and have a lot of fun with sgis.
Be carefull, it's very addictive

Er, yes. Good thing it's actually getting a R4 4 00SC.



Yes indeed. I'll probably look at getting some of the excellent Nekoware stuff on it next. Although my daily driver will still be the Power Macs, it'll be good to have another decent workstation, and I'll probably start saving my pennies for an Octane.

Nice to have another Mac enthusiast aboard. I actually started on a nextstation and old PowerPC Macs running Apple's MkLinux OS (hence my tux avatar with a "cube" head and NeXT shadow). I like my nextstation mono and my 68k Macs, but my favorite and still daily driver is a Frankenmac Performa 6300 shell with a psu from a 6360 and a 300 MHz logic board from a 6500. I have to say I've gotten really hooked on MIPS based SGIs, though. They're becoming an addiction and I'm saving my pennies for a DMedia Pro breakout box / Tezro combo.

Now that's hardcore beige Mac action. I'm "just" on a quad G5 most of the time (though I'm typing this on a Luxo G4, and my laptop is the last of the iBooken).

Though, with a 6500 logic board, a L2-slot G3 should be a nice upgrade for that. My TAM in my bedroom has a 500MHz G3.

What OS are you running on the Quad G5?

10.4.11. I need Photoshop and Final Cut, so Linux is out, and I still use some Classic apps and I hate the colour and gamma changes in 10.5. So Tiger forever.

Final Cut! So you must be a former Nothing Real/Shake user eh? I've got Shake 3-point-6 something on my Octane, still kind of annoyed by how rudely Apple dropped Shake...

Apple has not been kind to their pro users, no, but I use FCX HD, so I'm not quite that advanced.

Yeah but now they've yanked Final Cut Express too, though, right? Software lockin followed by bait 'n switch, bastards...

Yep.

I have a filmmaker buddy who is concerned about Apple as a pro company. He doesn't like 10.8 (or, for that matter, 10.7), doesn't like what they're doing to Final Cut, and worries about the future of the Mac Pro. I see him jumping to a Linux farm in the next two or three years if Apple doesn't come through with a better professional roadmap.

welcome on board, amigo!!

I tried lion, and lasted about a month before I went back to 10.6. I use FCPX as well and I actually like that (but only casually, I use adobe PrEl 10 on windows xp at work)

I also still use windows xp and irix 6.5.22, so 10.6 is very modern by comparison..

10.6 is the last version of OS X I think I'll ever use. I'm just not happy with Apple anymore.

For a company whose stock just hit $700 Apple sure gets a lot of things wrong. I think the last time I used my Macbook Pro was last December...

Let's qualify that - for many of us Apple gets a lot of things wrong. There are plenty of people who buy technology as an appliance, don't mind getting a new one every 3 or so years, and don't mind getting new applications every time. If there weren't then Apple would be in trouble.

Compare that with the occasional "hacker friendly" company that puts together an interesting architecture with openish, easy to expand specs and dies after a few years. Apple's attitute is just "follow the big bucks and to hell with the rest of the world."

That attitude probably makes a lot of sense for a company that spent literally years circling the drain. Regardless though, I'm still hacked off at the unceremonious way they shitcanned Shake. And the way they run iTunes and the App Store is a particularly egregious mix of fraud and usury...

I dont think Apple is very interested in being a computing company anymore - pro or otherwise. They are now in the business of selling highly specialised information appliances designed to lock the non-pro sheeple into AAPLs storage and content platforms.

Turns out 10.6 was the last generic computing platform for apple hardware.