The collected works of bvdwiel

Hold on to your horses "kids". Just to pull this back on-topic and clarify my NetBSD adventure: I got my O2 for free, inherited it from a former colleague who retired and didn't have a place for it in his home. It's a beautiful box that I'll be happy to put to use as a hobbyist plaything . I have no history with IRIX whatsoever and I have no specific IRIX apps I'd like to run on it. For everything the O2 does with multimedia, I have a contemporary Mac that runs circles around it so that's not the point. What I specifically like about the O2 is the combination of it being a physically small but well-built machine capable of running UNIX graphically on a large monitor. Sure I could get that from Linux on the first slimline budget PC I find at the local discount store these days, but why would I do that if there's a perfectly functional and very pretty machine sitting on my desk right now?
My lack of success in upgrading IRIX properly (probably my own fault) means I'm effectively stuck with a working environment from 1998 without a properly working C(++) compiler (no license). I'm very sorry if it hurts your sensibilities, but for me that sucks no matter how cool IRIX is otherwise. NetBSD gives me what I need and it does so legally and for free. I don't see how this would make the machine any less of an O2 than others that are actually running IRIX. A Dell isn't any less Dell if it runs Haiku OS instead of Windows 7 either.

If I were to use IRIX on my O2, I wouldn't be using any more of the hardware than I am using now. I don't do any A/V-work or 3D graphics anymore at all (MP3 playback works, but that doesn't really count). For my purposes NetBSD makes the O2's hardware do what I need, something IRIX doesn't give me without me needing to spend a wad of cash on the missing odds and ends from SGI. Or I could pirate the bits, of course. Given that choice, I choose to keep my O2 in working order and productive using freely available software. It's either that or I scrap it and buy a cheap Core i3 that someone proposed earlier. Personally I feel landfills are full enough with fully functional, needlessly discarded technology as it is. My O2 is an O2 because it says so on the box and it has the same innards it had when it was first sold. If SGI had gone on and developed a radically different IRIX 7 similar to what Apple did to its OS around 2000, that wouldn't have made my blue box any less of an O2 either.

That's just ludicrous. What you're saying, is that if I were to just install IRIX and *still* not use any of the 3D and A/V functionality then my system would be an O2. Not that I really care enough to spin this out into a huge discussion, but I don't see any logic in your line of reasoning. I used to own a cheaply built Acer laptop that just happened to make a 100% compatible hackintosh, running Mac OS X 100% perfectly with everything fully working. Following your train of thought, that machine should by rights be called a Mac. I'd disagree with that. But all things considered, I'm happily using my 100% original SGI hardware in combination with an alternative OS. If I recall correctly, the topic title was: What do you use your SGI for? Well, I use it to develop software while using an OS of my own choosing.

Did I neglect to mention that I have an Octane sitting under the same desk which is actually running IRIX?

Heck.. I run Debian on a MIPS computer router that packs a whole lot more oomph than the O2 MIPS computer on my desk. This is getting complicated. Long story short: I'm going to give IRIX another try this weekend.