Miscellaneous Operating Systems/Hardware

Hello all, I am baaaaack! Well, I posted (after a very long time) a message on the MaXX Interactive Desktop page asking the community if it was worth continuing the project. Yup! I am more than ready for the task ahead, but not alone. I need people to assist, code and promote the thing.


Your comments/feedback are always welcome.

Regards,

Eric Masson

here's the link : http://www.maxxdesktop.com/site/?p=335

fantastic

what would be required from the guys joining the team?

maxxi.desktop wrote: Your comments/feedback are always welcome.

If it ran on MIPS-Linux it would be more desirable (to me, anyhow.) A Longson laptop and MaXXDesktop is the closest any of us will ever get to an Irix portable ... (geo excepted )

foetz wrote: fantastic

what would be required from the guys joining the team?

well, we need developers first. C/C++. X Windows is a plus but really appreciated. Any API like Qt, Motif, X11/Xt

thx

hamei wrote:

maxxi.desktop wrote: Your comments/feedback are always welcome.

If it ran on MIPS-Linux it would be more desirable (to me, anyhow.) A Longson laptop and MaXXDesktop is the closest any of us will ever get to an Irix portable ... (geo excepted )

can't do it alone. but priority will be voted this time. so hopefully the collective will be happy

bug report: newest 5Dwm somehow lost MaximumClientSize default and uses MaximumMaximumSize in Firefox.

Eric, what is the status of the SGI Indigo Magic Desktop source code? Do you have all of it or are there parts that the development team will have to reverse engineer because the source code is unavailable?

vishnu wrote: Eric, what is the status of the SGI Indigo Magic Desktop source code? Do you have all of it or are there parts that the development team will have to reverse engineer because the source code is unavailable?

well, I see two options here.

1) I continue the way that the licensing was establish between SGI and me.
2) I get enough names in a web petition that allows me to reopen the question with SGI and we take over the evolution of SGI's code base on Linux.

I would prefer #2, but like I said so many times, I am not doing it alone.

cheers,

I don't think it would take much convincing to get most of nekochan to sign that petition, but would that be enough?

zuluchas wrote: I don't think it would take much convincing to get most of nekochan to sign that petition, but would that be enough?

Sure - IMD is a nice desktop.

EDIT - sure for the signing the petition. That being enough depends on who people know in SGI and how generous they're feeling, and how big the risk is of someone else's IP being in IMD, and ...

Presumably most of the work wouldn't be new development but rather getting the existing IMD codebase to compile using gcc with Linux? I'd be glad to help so you can go ahead and add me to the list of willing minions...

Speaking of who we know at SGI I have a lifelong friend who was my "in" guy at SGI in Chippewa Falls, but Cray made him a better offer last year and he jumped, after more than 20 years with SGI. He was an eyewitness to the destruction off all those Tezros, Prisms, Origins etc. in 1996...

vishnu wrote: He was an eyewitness to the destruction off all those Tezros, Prisms, Origins etc. in 1996 ...

Sorry to be the nitpicky guy, but... Wasn't the Tezro introduced around 2003? So maybe 2006 for The Great Crushinating ? Or were there multiple instances of Lesser Crushinatings every few years?

cf: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11793

hehe yes none of those were out in 1996 but since he left sgi only last year he has seen it anyway

Ha ha yeah 2006, lost a decade in there somewhere sorry!

maxxi.desktop wrote: Hello all, I am baaaaack! Well, I posted (after a very long time) a message on the MaXX Interactive Desktop page asking the community if it was worth continuing the project. Yup! I am more than ready for the task ahead, but not alone. I need people to assist, code and promote the thing.


Your comments/feedback are always welcome.

Regards,

Eric Masson

Thank Odin! I was wondering what happened since things seemed to have been moving along and then, nothing. I installed DR3 onto my older backup Ubuntu box some months ago, loved the way it looked but it was a bit incomplete so I haven't installed it on my newer Ubuntu machine yet. It was missing some must-have basics like support for multiple desktops though maybe that's just my fault in terms of installing it? Anyway, the Irix desktop was always my favorite so I cannot wait to get that onto my Linux computers. I don't think I can help much with coding but I will certainly (and have, in the past) promote its existence and availability for you.

maxxi.desktop wrote:

hamei wrote: If it ran on MIPS-Linux it would be more desirable (to me, anyhow.) A Longson laptop and MaXXDesktop is the closest any of us will ever get to an Irix portable ... (geo excepted )

can't do it alone. but priority will be voted this time. so hopefully the collective will be happy

Well, I hope it can be both (x86 and MIPS) because I don't see how a niche desktop designed for a niche CPU (I can't even find a way to buy one beyond mentions of Loongson netbooks on Amazon that aren't even available anymore) alone can succeed. I do like the idea of a MIPS64 laptop, that would be something to consider buying if it can compete with Lenovo Thinkpads (my current choice) in terms of screen resolution and CPU power.

Hopefully Maxx can end up everywhere , I have a desktop Ubuntu machine and a laptop Ubuntu machine (both Intel i7s) praying for that day.

Any way we could make it work for all the platforms so that it doesn't have to be Linux-specific ?

kubatyszko wrote: Any way we could make it work for all the platforms so that it doesn't have to be Linux-specific ?

As far as I remember the problem was only the licensing agreement with SGI - x86 linux only.

ItsMeOnly wrote: As far as I remember the problem was only the licensing agreement with SGI - x86 linux only.

Bankruptcy - another fraud perpetrated upon the American public by the legal establishment.