[geeks] Disney going to HP Linux for animation

[Bjorn Ramqvist]

Kurt Huhn wrote:
> 
> > http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/18/technology/18LINU.html
> 
> Ugh, asks for an account - I already get enough spam...
> 
> Anyway, that's a big mistake.  Not that moving from SGI is a mistake,
> but moving *to* HP is a mistake.  I have never seen a greater collection
> of crap PCs than those pandered by HP.  The Compaqs are _okay_ (they're
> better than HP, but I'd never buy one), but HP makes some seriously shit
> workstations.

If we're talking workstations, I'm probably not the guy to tell my
opinion. However, the HP (PC!) servers are _crap_ IMO. The Compaqs are
good, very good infact. They're very easy to service and to add
peripherals to, and they started out this "new generation" era that did
all the bad stuff go away. Very nice linux-boxes IMO.

> I'm really disapointed in SGI's marketing efforts.  I'm also disapointed
> in their product offerings.  They really need to bring a *Unix* (NOT
> NT!!) workstation into the lower price-point market, or they won't
> survive the next five years.  They've got the O2, Fuel, and Octane2
> workstations - what they need is a 'helium' priced below the Fuel, and a
> 'diesel' worked in there somewhere too, possibly an Octane2
> replacement.  The Octane2 is a great platform, but it's been around
> since, what, 1996?  They need a fresh product in the high-end
> workstation segment to generate market excitement.  The stagnant nature
> of SGIs products is part of their problem (IMO) in the commercial
> sector.
> 
> Of course that's just my opinion, I could be wrong...

I think you're absolutely right. SGI's marketing ain't worth jack
nowadays. The old times are gone, beeing definite through scrapping the
"3D-bug". Ofcourse, the Origin and Onyx 3000 is cool, the Origin 300 is
also cool, the Fuel is also very cool, but looking at it in a
perspective, it doesn't fill the void. I think it's exactly as you're
saying, the customers need an "Indy-thing".
The Fuel is nowhere near an "Indy-thing" in my eyes. It's fast, it's
capable, but for a price. Octane2 is overpriced in comparence and has
it's numbers are counted even a year ago.

I'd blame some on the developers also. Last week I saw my happy
playground (Octane forest) bleech in comparence to a new-brighty-shiny
Dell Xeon-thingy when comparing IDEAS-performance. The Dell-crap blew
performance twice of the Fuel in IDEAS, all cause IDEAS is 32-bit! Those
damn fsck'ers had I-don't-know-how-many years on them to convert to
fully 64-bit, to enjoy the lightspeed 64-bit enviroments out there, but
nooo.
"We go NT, and let's stay 32-bit cause everybody else does."
Bah.
At that moment, when that black vacuum-machine-thing whiped the dust off
our Octanes and the Fuel, I saw myself defeated and almost my job too.
It was cause of the SGI-era on this $company that got me this job. Now
they're going PC cause of performance. I don't blame'em, really. Paying
somewhere near $6,000 for a hotrod-PC that does the job twice as fast as
the kickass-Fuel for $12,000 is argument enough in the suits eyes.

Maybe I'll go convert to M$ like everybody else...
uhm wait, that's not a hammer in your hand, or is it?
aaaaaagggghhh.-.... *falls of the face of the earth*

-- 
Vnliga hlsningar/Best Regards
Bjrn Ramqvist, Hgglunds Vehicle AB