[rescue] OT: Solaris for Intel

[joshua d boyd]

On Wed, Jul 25, 2001 at 06:37:56AM -0700, Ken Hansen wrote:
> I doubt it - Laptop sales for Unix/Solaris are
> *miniscule* compared to corporate rollouts of Win2K
> laptops...

For solaris yes.  However, there is a growing market for linux
laptops.  Still miniscule compared to Win2K notebooks, but definately
larger than the market for SPARCbooks and IBM's PPC books.
 
> Mfgs. will not be pressured to support Linux/Solaris
> if XIG.COM went away, the work involved relative to
> the increased revenue (how many *additional* laptops
> will we sell by investing 3 mos. effort into
> supporting Linux/Solaris?) just wont justify it...

Yeah, they probably wouldn't.  Frankly, I just don't understand why these
companies don't release the specs to begin with.  Has there ever been any
evidence that a competitor got an edge by looking at the Matrox or ATI
XFree drivers?
 
> XIG gets about $100 - 150/pop for each laptop - that
> is the *only way* it can work out, IMHO. (I don't
> think Toshiba makes more than $100 or $200 on the
> whole laptop!)

While if it is nescesarry, I'd be willing to consider such drivers, they
appear somewhat limited.  For instance, I don't see any evidence that they
support multi head 3D, or even one 3D display and one 2D only one.

Further, getting outside drivers just feels rather non standard, and I
like to try and keep things standard (although even a brief glance over my
systems would tell you that I fail completely at doing so).

They do seem to be hiring.  Maybe I'll try applying once I graduate.  I
kinda had been thinking of staying on the east coast, but I don't see very
many interesting jobs advertised.

--
Joshua D. Boyd