8 May
2006
8 May
'06
5 p.m.
Those of us here in Silicon Valley all knew it was
coming - and only a matter
of time before SGI went bankrupt. But it is so maddening that a company who
made the such incredible contributions to graphics, and had such an
impressive intellectual property portfolio blew it all away... (Mostly on
developing hardware and software to support NT).
I think anyone remotely interested in SGI has been able to see this. It
started when they decided to try to be a Windows NT reseller, and was
completed when they decided to go into the Linux business.
I only use them as a Hobbyist, and the high-end Octanes are going for a very
reasonable amount right now, but I've avoided them as it's obvious the days
of IRIX getting updates are numbered (not to mention how hard it is to get
an update).
It is a shame, I have two SGI O2's, one is the slowest R5000 based model,
the other is a very nice R12000/270Mhz. I bought both over 3 years ago
before things got so bad. Even the incredibly slow O2 is one of the most
impressive computers I've ever seen.
I'd much rather have a dual R12000 Octane than the dual 750Mhz Sun Blade 1000
I got recently. However, the Sun has software availability and a company
that isn't on life support going for it. Well, that and I hear the Octanes
are pretty loud, while the SB1000 is surprisingly quiet, especially for its
size (it is by far the quietest Sun system I've ever owned).
Zane