SGI: Discussion

I'm curious how many people (if any) use an SGI as their daily computer.

What I mean isn't just a computer you toy with daily, but actually as your main machine you go to for...whatever it is computer related that you're doing.

Moreover, for those that do, what do you think the gaps are that make it challenging (and if you would want to but can't, what is it you're missing that keeps you from doing so).

i use my sgis for whatever they can do. for the rest i use osx.

as for the challenges (pun partially intended ), i don't think that changed much compared to back when they were still sold. they were never intended to be consumer allround machines so there's always been something missing here and there

This is my dream to get a good quad cpu Tezro or a dual cpu Ultra 45 and scrap my regular PC.

vegac wrote: I'm curious how many people (if any) use an SGI as their daily computer.

One here ...

Moreover, for those that do, what do you think the gaps are that make it challenging (and if you would want to but can't, what is it you're missing that keeps you from doing so).

It would be nice to have something that worked with .doc files, not counting Open Orifice. That thing is a p.o.s. Ted is okay and people don't even know when you send them rtf's because Windows conveniently hides the extension, but getting docs is a pain.

A not-online docx converter.

A spreadsheet program that can read xls files. Again, Open Orifice exists so we're not tied to the railroad tracks but something better would be good.

Standard request is a browser ... in the big picture maybe, maybe not. Flop 3 does crash and it's not very fast but could be PaleMooned or something to be better. But for sites like Nekochan that don't use bullshit tracking chasing and spying, it works fine. And I don't want to go to tracking spying sites anyhow. Those sites are like coke without the pussy, you feel so cheap and used afterwards, not going there is the better choice.

Nekoware really has a ton of stuff and running a compiler is not such a big deal. If I had to name any single thing that would be the most help, maybe a newer and better gtk2 would be the biggest. Anything newer than the industrial revolution wants gtk2 ...

All in all, Irix works fine and we have most of what's necessary. Occasionally I have to steal the Assist's Win2k* computer to fill out some online pdf (wtf are those people thinking ?) but in general, no problemo with Irix.

*Okay, I admit it. It's now Windows Server 2003. After eight years it needed a rebuild and I wanted to try Mr Canavan's rdesktop so we moved on to Server 2003. rdesktop works nicely. The newest Fireflop does not. What a piece of shit. Stick to v 28 if you know what's good for you, and even that has some very braindead decisions. This has informed my thinking of Fireflop on Irix - the newer flops are not good. The Mozilla Corporation has totally destroyed Phoenix, thank you so much. It was good while it lasted.

vegac wrote: I'm curious how many people (if any) use an SGI as their daily computer.

I still have an O2 (R10k/250 Mhz, 1 GB of RAM). Of course, for things like the online banking I have to use a non-sgi computer (Linux laptop).

I use my O2 for writing of articles and presentations in the LaTeX, also for simple sketches, graphs and images (XFig, Gnuplot) and for lightweight FEA (I have my own finite element code which I use) and so on.
I use the gcc 4.7 for software development. My codes still use OpenGL 1.2 and Gtk+ 2.x so there are no main isues for me.

I also have several older DOS-based portables (a PSION MC600, HP LX boxes,...) and I use the CKermit to communicate with them via the serial port (software and data backups and so).

Also use my O2 for some general things (image viewing, gaming,...).

My problems:

1. For WWW I prefer the Links browser. When it isn't enough then I use the Firefox. But for many sites I have to use a Linux laptop

2. The OpenOffice is slow and old but the LibreOffice on a modern Linux box is not much better.

3. The Octave 2.x (which is available here at nekochan.net) is too old for me.

It really seems a fast browser is the #1 requirement...

That then opens up the ability to use most sites (including online document editing if needed, webmail, etc. etc.)

Pity Dillo is so limited...it's certainly got speed on its side.

vegac wrote: Pity Dillo is so limited...it's certainly got speed on its side.

Unfortunately, the fact that Dillo is so limited is why it's got speed on its side. We put such absurd demands on web browsers now, with elaborate layouts and absolute mountains of Javascript even on a lot of pages that would be perfectly fine without it, that it's basically impossible to have a browser that's both efficient and full-featured enough to make a lot of modern webpages happy. There have certainly been some heroic efforts (yo, ClassicHasClass!) but ultimately the choice comes down to efficient-but-limited versus full-featured-but-beastly...

vegac wrote: It really seems a fast browser is the #1 requirement...

That then opens up the ability to use most sites (including online document editing if needed, webmail, etc. etc.)

Pity Dillo is so limited...it's certainly got speed on its side.

I'll swim against the current here and disagree. In fact, it's getting to where the lack of a "modern" web browser is almost an asset. The web is such a pile of shit these days that being limited in that respect is not a bad thing. Have you looked at the domain names for the first five pages of a search recently ? 80% of them are frauds.

btw, webmail works fine and the hitch with document editing is in the pdf reader, not the browser. There's not much decent available on Windows for that, either.

Here's the deal - if you don't want to live in 1984, then don't use the telescreen. Google is not your friend.

I do wish Mr Axatax would return with his Mplayer work.

commodorejohn wrote:

vegac wrote: Pity Dillo is so limited...it's certainly got speed on its side.

Unfortunately, the fact that Dillo is so limited is why it's got speed on its side. We put such absurd demands on web browsers now, with elaborate layouts and absolute mountains of Javascript even on a lot of pages that would be perfectly fine without it

couldn't agree more. here's a random example that makes one think wtf? :

commodorejohn wrote: We put such absurd demands on web browsers now ...

What do you mean, "we", white man ? I doubt that you could find five actual users who want this disgusting shit. It's all created by slavering Madison Avenue greedmeisters trying to jam their worthless crap down our throats. Or twelve-year-olds who just discovered Visual Basic and adsense and should have got a paper route instead.

commodorejohn wrote:

vegac wrote: Pity Dillo is so limited...it's certainly got speed on its side.

Unfortunately, the fact that Dillo is so limited is why it's got speed on its side. We put such absurd demands on web browsers now, with elaborate layouts and absolute mountains of Javascript even on a lot of pages that would be perfectly fine without it, that it's basically impossible to have a browser that's both efficient and full-featured enough to make a lot of modern webpages happy. There have certainly been some heroic efforts (yo, ClassicHasClass!) but ultimately the choice comes down to efficient-but-limited versus full-featured-but-beastly...

Yeah, hacking on Fx some more for Irix is on my round tuit list, but TenFourFox has highest priority (which, speaking of JavaScript, should have a full Ion implementation for PowerPC by Fx38 if I can get my skates on).

I mainly use my Onyx2 these days.. Mostly messing around in Maya , the odd modeling project that eventually ends up on either an Apple or windows desktop.. Looking forward to making use of the DIVO though

Yup, need a better and faster browser also most of the SGI boxes (including tezro) has extremely loud fans and Onyx2 can consume huge amount of electricity for simple task like 3d modeling in Maya. I don't see any reason to use SGI boxes as daily driver aside from hobby or man's toy.

Are there any PeeCee emulators on IRIX good enough to run a late enough windows to use Microsoft office capable of docx?

Pontus wrote: Are there any PeeCee emulators on IRIX good enough to run a late enough windows to use Microsoft office capable of docx?

hardly but there was a discussion about docx converters a few days ago