IRIX and Software

http://techpubs.sgi.com/library/tpl/cgi ... #id5179360

Nothing spectacular <yawn>

Double yawn...

Just yesterday, I rolled back both my Octane & O2, from .29 to .27 - I don't have .28 - because of some quirks with NFS I can't seem to get around. Must be my limited UNIX-skillz but anyways, .27 seems to work just fine.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it...

I have to agree....like yawn. What sgi is doing is just cruel. Kill it or don't.

Yeah, all my "O" hardware is running .27. I have .28 and .29, but what's the point, .27 is fine for me.

29 has some neat new xfs features. but be sure to install the quota patch

IRIX 6.5.x has been getting regular upgrades since 1998 -- it's a very mature platform.

Of course, it has some serious gaps in a few areas like USB, Firewire, the desktop GUI, etc. Even though those areas are important to hobbyists, they are generally not high priorities for SGI's big $$ customers. SGI is struggling, and filesystem tweaks, I/O tweaks, etc., are what the customers with million dollar service contracts are asking for, and that's where SGI's diminished IRIX efforts are sure to be focused.

For those who aren't interested in such things, it's probably best to start looking at new IRIX releases as consolidated patch sets, rather than as major releases .

All things considered, that's still pretty decent support from a company going through bankruptcy for an OS that's probably not too far from going into maintenance mode (i.e. security/bug fixes only).

josehill wrote: IRIX 6.5.x has been getting regular upgrades since 1998 -- it's a very mature platform.

Of course, it has some serious gaps in a few areas like USB

who cares? oh and there are usb keyboards and mice

, Firewire

dm10.

, the desktop GUI

what's wrong with the dekstop? it's perfect! productivity oriented, very fast, slim, not overloaded, stable ... it's just not a toy like desktop today. but exactly this is one of the major pros at least for me.

foetz wrote:

josehill wrote: Of course, it has some serious gaps in a few areas like USB

who cares? oh and there are usb keyboards and mice

I do, a little bit.

It would be nice to be able to buy a common USB2 card, slap it into any PCI SGI box (like an O2, or even an O2K, not just the more recent machines), and then connect one or two $250 500 GB USB2 drives and have them work without having to sacrifice a goat first, rather than pay the same amount for a 73 GB SCA drive.

I prefer using SCSI drives for servers and critical applications, but for certain uses, it would be great to have a reasonable, cheap USB storage option, especially on older hardware.

foetz wrote:

josehill wrote: , Firewire

dm10.

Sure, but poking around in other Nekochan threads reveals caveats about one chipset or another, things that work on Tezro or Fuel but are more, um, complex on other systems, and so on. No doubt it's great for some, but Firewire is one of those things that should "just work."

foetz wrote:

josehill wrote: , the desktop GUI

what's wrong with the dekstop? it's perfect! productivity oriented, very fast, slim, not overloaded, stable ... it's just not a toy like desktop today. but exactly this is one of the major pros at least for me.

I agree! (Well, maybe I'd only say it's "really, really great!", not "perfect!" )

I'm not talking about adding all sorts of wizzy effects or bubblegum and eye candy, but really just some tiny, gradual improvements in functionality. To be clear, I am also referring to the entire desktop application environment, not just 4dwm. In many ways, KDE and Gnome still have not reached the level of functionality and behavioral consistency that IRIX 6.5 had in 1998. Unfortunately, as IRIX desktop development efforts declined, some of the beautifully integrated functions have been replaced by less elegant (but perhaps more complete) open source solutions (for example, Impressario vs CUPS). If IRIX desktop development had continued, I could imagine all sorts of refinements for dragging-and-dropping between desktop applications, as well as many other things that might be useful. A moot point, however, since the desktop certainly isn't getting any more refinements!

By the way, I really wasn't complaining about IRIX. The quality of the IRIX Interactive Desktop is the main reason why my staff and I continue to use IRIX desktops as our preferred frontend to our Linux and Solaris systems!

josehill wrote: A moot point, however, since the desktop certainly isn't getting any more refinements!

Hmm, I disagree with that point. From SGI itself, yes, but I'm continuously amazed at some of the refinements that the SGI user community has come up with - iconbar, imwheel and aer (Advanced Enforce Rate) to name a few.

nekonoko wrote:

josehill wrote: A moot point, however, since the desktop certainly isn't getting any more refinements!

Hmm, I disagree with that point. From SGI itself, yes, but I'm continuously amazed at some of the refinements that the SGI user community has come up with - iconbar, imwheel and aer (Advanced Enforce Rate) to name a few.

Of course, you're right about that. I was only referring to official SGI products.

josehill wrote:

foetz wrote:

josehill wrote: Of course, it has some serious gaps in a few areas like USB

who cares? oh and there are usb keyboards and mice

I do, a little bit.

It would be nice to be able to buy a common USB2 card, slap it into any PCI SGI box (like an O2, or even an O2K, not just the more recent machines), and then connect one or two $250 500 GB USB2 drives and have them work without having to sacrifice a goat first, rather than pay the same amount for a 73 GB SCA drive.

I prefer using SCSI drives for servers and critical applications, but for certain uses, it would be great to have a reasonable, cheap USB storage option, especially on older hardware.

foetz wrote:

josehill wrote: , Firewire

dm10.

Sure, but poking around in other Nekochan threads reveals caveats about one chipset or another, things that work on Tezro or Fuel but are more, um, complex on other systems, and so on. No doubt it's great for some, but Firewire is one of those things that should "just work."

I'm very happy with IRIX, and I guess I'm lately more qualified to do it than before, after about two months trying the newest alternative open source OS variations for X86. Then I was able to notice how well designed and built IRIX is, no matter if it is compared to any of the self called "Latest Generation" OS(s).

Anyway, I can't avoid to agree with JoseHill on the two above points. We need fully supported IEEE-1394 and USB buses, with wider support for any kind of device, and free of worries on smaller platforms too (O2?)

But well, I'm also a lot happy to see a new Overlays release!

josehill wrote: It would be nice to be able to buy a common USB2 card, slap it into any PCI SGI box (like an O2, or even an O2K, not just the more recent machines), and then connect one or two $250 500 GB USB2 drives and have them work without having to sacrifice a goat first, rather than pay the same amount for a 73 GB SCA drive.

I'm hoping that the newish cheap nas devices will fill that gap. There's a new kuro box coming out soon that sounds good. Real good.

josehill wrote: I agree! (Well, maybe I'd only say it's "really, really great!", not "perfect!" )

I'm not talking about adding all sorts of wizzy effects or bubblegum and eye candy, but really just some tiny, gradual improvements in functionality.

It would be nice if some stuff like the icon view of an ftp site didn't blow up all the time, cdrom's are far too slow and finicky on my boxes at least and x-window locks up more than i would like but otherwise, yeah. It's purty good.

I'm putting a lot of hope into this kurobox thingy for mundane tasks and saying a little prayer every night that someone somewhere will sell me an 800 mhz fuel processor for cheap. Overall, it's hard to beat Irix on MIPS.

foetz wrote:

, Firewire

dm10.

Yeah, right.

I've got a DM10 (actually, a red adaptec) in my O2. Recently, I got myself a LaCie d2 Extreme 500GB disk with firewire, and for kicks I plugged it into the O2 -- BLAM instant kernel crash. Oops, I guess it wasn't hot-pluggable. Restart with the firewire disk connected, and it seemed to be fine -- until halfway through a 'diskperf' run -- BLAM another kernel crash. OK, I get it, that's enough punishment for me -- disk goes back to server backup duty (what I bought it for in the first place).

hamei wrote: I'm putting a lot of hope into this kurobox thingy for mundane tasks

Well, it is not bad at all, considering the fact that it will go for about U$D160.- ...cheap enough! ...Just thinking: I've paided about U$D90.- about a year ago here in my city for my red and unuseful DM10 clone (Adaptec 4300B)...