Why IRIX sucks (was Re: [rescue] Sparcstation 2 help!Please)

[Patrick Giagnocavo]

G W Adkins wrote:

> The Media costs put food on the table when they only get paid for once for
> every ten installed machines.  I don't like high OS costs either, and
> personally think that if they sold it at $60 per copy, then they would make
> more money, but that is neither here nor there.  It's their software, they
> can charge what they want for it.  If you don't like it, don't use it.
> There _are_ other platforms out there.  Don't complain because you bought an
> expensive piece of hardware on the cheap and might have to pay some cash to
> get the latest OS.

I think that SGI should follow Sun's behavior with Sol8 - sell it for
$75 per copy.

SGI can still make money on hw margins (they need to go for volume more
than they are though) and support contracts.

The Cray boondoggle cost them money, and the NT debacle showed that they
didn't have enough confidence in their own architecture and software.  

If SGI had not bought Cray and just focused on making a 16 way version
of their hw, then a 32-way, etc. they would have been further ahead.

The traitor at SGI who proposed NT ended up working at Microsoft (Rick
Belluzzo).  As far as being "cost-conscious" and commodity oriented
(Rick's big focus), how tough would it have been to use 168pin DIMMs in
the o2?  If they needed better memory performance they could have used
interleaving.

./patrick