The recent SGI IRIX 6.5.19 release contains updates for both the maintenance (6.5.19m) and feature (6.5.19f) streams. This release continues the focus on stability, reliability, security and compatibility required in the IRIX 6.5.X quarterly release process.
IRIX 6.5.19 Released
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
will SGI die within the next 2 years. The reason why I ask is that their finicials have continually gone downward for the past few years. It seems as though the market for high-end workstations is gone.
Just my 2¢
No, they won’t die. Such stuff “they will be dead next month” are going on for some years now, but SGI is still here because of their strong financial ties to vendors and the government/military.
> It seems as though the market for high-end workstations is gone
It’s gone for SGI, yes. But Windows, Linux and OSX took over where SGI left it. SGI’s main focus today is really high-end governmental and corporate servers, not Hollywood.
Here’s a link from last month on the subject in the newsobserver:
http://newsobserver.com/24hour/technology/story/771698p-5550509c.ht…
SGI does face some challenges, like making sure that developers and students ever even see an SGI box and get the chance to work with it. Without this how do they expect people to push for companies to buy SGI products.
Also, here’s an interesting bit from osopinion on Apple and SGI:
http://www.osopinion.com/perl/story/12240.html
SGI could at least license Aqua, or maybe all of OSX. It might help with the ugly interface on all those great looking boxes.
>Here’s a link from last month on the subject in the newsobserver:
I know, I linked to it back then… But I also know that SGI’s main focus is not Hollywood anymore.
SGI caters to a niche market. I dont expect such intended applications as medical imaging, scientific visualisation, seismic interpretation, or geospatial imaging to be on a large number of “must have” lists. Where the company is very much respected, I expect them to remain so for quite some time. Eugenia is 120% correct about their focus nowadays. For a good example of real-world application of sgi products, I find this the most amusing:
SGI® products and solutions empower the government’s most demanding applications, including ballistic missile defense, homeland security, weather and climate forecasting, simulation-based acquisition, training systems, research and development, command and control, and surveillance and reconnaissance. SGI powers the digital battlespace with products and solutions to acquire, process, fuse, and visualize mission-critical data, enabling faster time to insight. Approximately 28-30% of SGI’s annual revenue is derived by solving mission-critical problems for governments worldwide.
That is a direct quote from sgi’s page. The government in particular is very likely to value sgi’s quality of support and support contracts. and look at just how much of that revenue comes from government applications. I somehow doubt windows/macos/insert os here will be taking their place in that market any time soon.
I have used some of SGI’s military computers. There is a large Tank training simulator in Ft. Knox. (can’t remember the name of it). It’s a large warehouse full of small cockpits for use in training of about a battalion of tanks. We went through it with about a company size element and they throw AI enemies at us, we fire on them as a group in what is probably the largest most expensive LAN party I have ever seen.
>> There is a large Tank training simulator in Ft. Knox. (can’t remember the name of it).
BZFlag?
I was using an Origin3800 (40 CPU’s and 40GB RAM) for my univeristy final year project. I thought IRIX was an alright system most of my experience with Unix(TM) has being with Tru64. Anyway it’s a serious piece of hardware and it would be a pity to see SGI go under.
Ugh, no Aqua or OSX on an SGI. That would be a huge mistake. Irix is way more advanced than OSX for the stuff SGI does. Also, if you don’t like 4DWM you can always pick another window manager. There’s plenty to choose from.
Eugenia, did I miss the Fuel review ?
I worked with SGI workstations for several years doing some development on high-end CAD/CAM/CAE/several other 3-letter acronyms software. I liked 4DWM actually, and it was kinda my first expierence with *nix, so I tend to try and emulate the feel on my linux boxes bnecause I did like it so much. I tend to agree that the workstations that SGI makes are too pricy to compete with the intel market – for what MOST people need to do. SGI systems have always been “big-ticket” items, but I think that they’ve kinda been pushed out of the lower end of that market, and onto the large-systems market. Quite frankly, I think this is where SGI can really shine – especially with their NUMAFlex technology and some of the other shared-pool system resources they’ve developed.
I hope SGI doesn’t go under – it’s one of the few companies whose technology inspired me to go with the career path I have chosen. It would be a shame to see them go under.
Its not that SGI doesnt want hollywood its just that they cant get Hollywood. SGI machines suck, thats why everyone went to Linux. The interface is all out UGLY and is about 40 yrs old, there are no decent consumer apps for it and even if there were consumer apps for it who would buy them, I cannot afford a $15,000 computer system and neither can most consumers, SGI’s best bet would be just to give it up now, close the doors and try something else, like maybe open a fast food chain, you can call the Jumbo Burger IRIX.
Every time there is a news about Irix/SGI, I see these posts about how ugly Irix interface and exclamations how SGI sucks.
Honestly, I have never seen a person in my life who tried SGI and said later some bad words about it. Which leads me to the conclusion that such posts are written by folks with exceptional intelligence. Since which time SGI was targetting most consumers ? What is your definition of consumer apps ?
And by the way, SGI is a strong Linux supporter for many years now. And their loss of 3D lowend market was not due to the Irix desktop…
My thoughts of a userinterface – If you see it, you are probably not working hard enough. 4DWM is wonderfully transparent, responsive and minimal in design. I would not want any of that AQUA MAC stuff on my SGI- what an awful thought!
I agree on the interface. I actually like the traditional UNIX look more than the hard candy shell that comes with XP, KDE, and Aqua. I am one of the few people who was probably sad when SUN decided to start moving from CDE to Gnome.
Amen.
j00 kn0// 1+ b33y0tchZ!~
SGI’s IRIX along with Solaris 2.4 and NeXTSTEP 3.1 (and a hint of Linux) were my first tastes of Unix. Our SGI box was a RIP/frontend for a Canon Color Copier.
Kinda overkill.
But, it was sweet. I liked 4DWM, our Solaris box (which was an Appletalk Spooler/Router) used a WYSE terminal for interaction. NeXTSTEP handled the RIP of a large-format Xerox plotter/poster and a NovaJet. We also had an IBM PS/2 that ran an AIX RIP for another NovaJet, so since these boxen had one job, it was easy to explore and learn each of them.
SGI’s IRIX is tight. I to this day still feel that the 4DWM (it’s theme at least) is the most UNIX-like look and feel. Guess it’s a Motif thing. I try and use the high-rollers like CDE, GNOME or KDE. It’s more like Windows, then UNIX, but since they are all nix related, I love ’em all.
Q: What has beem my wm and theme for my FreeBSD/Laptop for years?
A: MWM/FVWM + Custom 4DWM Theme = Happiness =)
I just got an Sun Ultra2 (2CPU/512RAM), and I feel like I just won the Lotto. Still, I miss that Indigo.
Viva SGI!
I don’t think you understand IRIX/SGI at all. You used the word “consumer” several times (“consumer apps,” something about consumers being able to afford the machines, etc). But these are very definitely NOT “consumer” by any means–the most expensive consumer equipment (gaming stuff from vendors such as Alienware, plus I think one from Apple) is under $5,000, and I can’t imagine that this market makes up more than around 2% of the total consumer market.
Instead, SGI/IRIX is aimed (as has been addressed in this thread already) squarely at a small niche market, where the users have very specialized technical needs. Of course there’s no Corel WordPerfect port to IRIX–because that’s not what you do with IRIX.
hmm, that is a rather broad statement -> you will always need an “office package” on all platforms. As I develop on Irix, I ALSO write my technical documents on IRIX.
There was, and is still available http://ftp.corel.com/pub/WordPerfect/wpunix/60-5.2/demo/sgi/ -> although it is considered abandonware. But there definitely was a version of Wordperfect -> Version 6!!
I still use it on my machine…