Nekochan Net

Hey, all. Long story short, I decided to install Softwindows on my Octane and, for whatever reason, wasn't thinking about the licensing involved.

For those of you who do or have run it, did you just have a legitimate license from however long ago, did they release some kind of end of life hobbyists license or are we talking a crack situation that I shouldn't even be discussing here?

Thanks, fellas.

Presumably you've seen this? Link:

http://techpubs.sgi.com/library/tpl/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?coll=0650&db=bks&fname=/SGI_Admin/SWin_AG/ch06.html

SoftWindows has Microsoft code in it. Microsoft doesn't believe in giving anything away, ever, unless it helps them immediately in their mission to try and take over the world. SoftWindows for IRIX doesn't, so they won't ever give it away.

_________________
Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

Systems available for remote access on request.

(single-CM)

We used SoftWindows on IRIX in defence company (1a) and OMG... it was painful. You could play buzz word bingo in a meeting between screen updates.
I have never been masochistic enough to mess with it since. I'd strongly suggest rdesktop in nekoware.

R.

1a. military flight simulator on SGI, VME and real cockpit components, ARinc-429 and MIL-STD-1553 buses.

_________________
死の神はりんごだけ食べる

アレゲはアレゲ以上のなにものでもなさげ -- アレゲ研究家


J5600, 2 x Mac, 3 x SUN, Alpha DS20E, Alpha 800 5/550, 3 x RS/6000, Amiga 4000 VideoToaster, Amiga4000 -030, 733MHz Sam440 AmigaOS 4.1 update 1. Tandem Himalaya S-Series Nonstop S72000 ServerNet.

Sold:

Cortex ---> http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cortex-th ... 11?sk=info
Minnie ---> http://www.facebook.com/pages/Minnie-th ... 02?sk=info
Book ----> http://pymblesoftware.com/book/
Github ---> https://github.com/pymblesoftware
Visit http://www.pymblesoftware.com
Search for "Pymble", "InstaElf", "CryWhy" or "Cricket Score Sheet" in the iPad App store or search for "Pymble" or "CryWhy" in the iPhone App store.

Yeah, I figured MS would probably have some qualms about that. But, you never know.

And thanks for the link to that techpubs doc -- though I wasn't really trying to figure out how the license manager operated at just this moment, I'm sure the doc will be really helpful.

I was already reading through what I could find on the board about the software, so I've definitely heard the speed complaints. But I'm just curious to take some legacy proprietary IRIX software for a spin. It's that collecter's itch, I guess.

MS doesn't have any qualms at all about it - they've always been very clear and definite with the "no way, no how".

_________________
Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

Systems available for remote access on request.

(single-CM)

Umm, if you want to take some legacy proprietary Irix software for a spin, then SoftWindows is not exactly what you're looking for ...

Haha, good point. I guess it was more 'Hey, it was in with my install media. May as well give it a go.'

Edit: I'm also actually pretty surprised at it's performance; it's clipping along pretty happily. But, then again, hardware is an obviously huge factor and this is a dual 300 Octane.

Are you late for your Wall Street protest??

_________________
Dual R14K@600MHz, 2GB RAM, V12, 1x72GB HDD
R10K@175MHz, 512MB RAM, 1x72GB HDD
68040@33MHz, 128MB RAM, NeXTdimension 32MB, 2x 4.3GB HDD

...And lots of other UNIX-like systems for which there is no icon.

No, after explaining a couple of hundred times why company X is highly unlikely to open-source or give away product Y one tends to get a bit gruff about it, especially when a particular company (MS) has gone on record with a "we don't give stuff away" policy combined with a consent decree from an antitrust action.

_________________
Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

Systems available for remote access on request.

(single-CM)

"a particular company (MS) has gone on record with a "we don't give stuff away" policy"

You have posted this on a public forum, so I assume you are prepared to back this up.

SGI released promotional copies of SW 95. I have two from a trade event, and they came with "complementary" licenses from SGI.

I have more free/complementary software from MS than probably any other commercial SW company (nearly 1/2 a bookshelf worth). And before you call me some sort of M$/corporate shill, check my sig. and you'll see what types of systems I run. That Octane is my DD. Your assertion that MS doesn't "give away anything" is bunk.

This hypocrisy is almost comical as "SGI" won't even so much as *SELL* you a license for IRIX.

So, maybe you should clarify "a particular company (MS) has gone on record with a "we don't give stuff away policy" as I can completely refute this being *I* have in fact received "free stuff".

If they have gone on record, put up - because I'll refute any such assertion from MS as the amount of "free stuff" from them I can measure by the pound (they have run promotional "give-aways" for every OS from Windows 2000 on up to Win7 with over 200K+ copies given gratis). And that's just Windows.

_________________
Dual R14K@600MHz, 2GB RAM, V12, 1x72GB HDD
R10K@175MHz, 512MB RAM, 1x72GB HDD
68040@33MHz, 128MB RAM, NeXTdimension 32MB, 2x 4.3GB HDD

...And lots of other UNIX-like systems for which there is no icon.

Excellent ! So would you mind running over to nekoware /beta and pulling down a couple of tardists to test ? Doesn't have to be anything complex, even a bash or bunzip or exiftags or pstree app would be a help.

Of course, if you see anything else useful in there, feel free to grab it and start a thread. Us SGI daily driver people can use all the help we can get.

Thanks !

Not to put words in anyone's mouth but usually when we talk about giveaways hereabout we're ordinarily referring to source code released under a FOSS license...

In this case it's the binary, and the context does need to be taken into account. MS distributes promo copies as an investment more than "giving them away out of the goodness of their heart". MS no longer sells Windows 95, there is no money to be made from promoting it, and so they won't give it away. MS is run by people who know business, and as a result they're still doing very well, thank you, especially compared with Sun. In reality few companies give anything away- you have to "sanitize it" to make sure you're not going to be on the hook for license fees to someone else, and there's always the risk that the free product will poach customers. It's pretty much guaranteed that all your free stuff from MS was promotional - a calculated investment on the part of MS marketing. To an extent MS does give stuff away via their charitable programs, but again it's calculated - PR + tax write off + keeping the employees happy. Giving away SoftWindows 95 Windows licenses or licenses for MS-DOS serves no promotional value, so it isn't going to happen.

Regarding MS's attitude towards giving stuff away without an immediate business case - look at the remarks from senior management on FOSS. It's changed a bit now, but now they've found ways to make a profit off of FOSS. It's possible that there really has been a change - look at the release of Security Essentials, a pretty full-featured program. MS could have gotten away with much less and still had the PR, or decided that the PR wasn't worth it, but instead they put out a pretty good program in a market that they aren't looking to dominate. I'm still waiting a while before believing that they're truly interested in anything beyond the bottom line.

_________________
Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

Systems available for remote access on request.

(single-CM)

I have and use a lot of MS software. Most of it was free, the purchased and pirated stuff is in the minority

_________________
(Maradona) (DavidVilla) A1186 (Xavi)
A1370 (Messi) dp43tf (Puyol) A1387 (Abidal) A1408 (Guardiola)

"InfiniteReality Graphics - Power Through Complexity"