Nekochan Net

Hold on to your horses "kids". Just to pull this back on-topic and clarify my NetBSD adventure: I got my O2 for free, inherited it from a former colleague who retired and didn't have a place for it in his home. It's a beautiful box that I'll be happy to put to use as a hobbyist plaything. I have no history with IRIX whatsoever and I have no specific IRIX apps I'd like to run on it. For everything the O2 does with multimedia, I have a contemporary Mac that runs circles around it so that's not the point. What I specifically like about the O2 is the combination of it being a physically small but well-built machine capable of running UNIX graphically on a large monitor. Sure I could get that from Linux on the first slimline budget PC I find at the local discount store these days, but why would I do that if there's a perfectly functional and very pretty machine sitting on my desk right now?
My lack of success in upgrading IRIX properly (probably my own fault) means I'm effectively stuck with a working environment from 1998 without a properly working C(++) compiler (no license). I'm very sorry if it hurts your sensibilities, but for me that sucks no matter how cool IRIX is otherwise. NetBSD gives me what I need and it does so legally and for free. I don't see how this would make the machine any less of an O2 than others that are actually running IRIX. A Dell isn't any less Dell if it runs Haiku OS instead of Windows 7 either.

Umm, no. What you are saying is that a Fiberfab Valkyrie is the same as a GT-40. It isn't. It's fine that you run NetBSD, no problems with that, your computer etc etc. But unless you are also running the SGI software that actually uses that O2 hardware, it ain't really an O2. It's the combination that makes it what it is.

If I were to use IRIX on my O2, I wouldn't be using any more of the hardware than I am using now. I don't do any A/V-work or 3D graphics anymore at all (MP3 playback works, but that doesn't really count). For my purposes NetBSD makes the O2's hardware do what I need, something IRIX doesn't give me without me needing to spend a wad of cash on the missing odds and ends from SGI. Or I could pirate the bits, of course. Given that choice, I choose to keep my O2 in working order and productive using freely available software. It's either that or I scrap it and buy a cheap Core i3 that someone proposed earlier. Personally I feel landfills are full enough with fully functional, needlessly discarded technology as it is. My O2 is an O2 because it says so on the box and it has the same innards it had when it was first sold. If SGI had gone on and developed a radically different IRIX 7 similar to what Apple did to its OS around 2000, that wouldn't have made my blue box any less of an O2 either.

no, Hamei had it right; you don't have an O2. you have a MIPS CPU in a tasteful package. the things you eschew because you are not running IRIX are what makes it an O2. since the O2 hardware isn't functional, the product isn't either.

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DECUS Member 368596

That's just ludicrous. What you're saying, is that if I were to just install IRIX and *still* not use any of the 3D and A/V functionality then my system would be an O2. Not that I really care enough to spin this out into a huge discussion, but I don't see any logic in your line of reasoning. I used to own a cheaply built Acer laptop that just happened to make a 100% compatible hackintosh, running Mac OS X 100% perfectly with everything fully working. Following your train of thought, that machine should by rights be called a Mac. I'd disagree with that. But all things considered, I'm happily using my 100% original SGI hardware in combination with an alternative OS. If I recall correctly, the topic title was: What do you use your SGI for? Well, I use it to develop software while using an OS of my own choosing.

This isn't really that difficult a concept. If you take a C-Type Jaguar and put a nice small-block Ford in it, the car still looks like a C-Type and probably runs better than any C-Type ever did, but it is no longer really a C-Type. The whole is the sum of the parts, not the sum of some parts along with some other parts. That would be a different whole. Maybe a better whole, this isn't a value judgement, but not the whole that is implied by saying "I use an O2." What you use is O2 hardware that is running NetBSD.

It's a fine and dandy thing but not the same.

Netbsd on O2: good for you. The partially accelerated X is useful and because of it the browser you get does much better than the old sea monkey we're stuck with in irix. No 3d accel though. I do have a line to the author of the patches but hes busy hacking on powerpc, or growing up. I have tried to explore the poss for unlocking the ICE chip for more accel (there is a reason it's not been done).

Anyway it will run for a bit, then kernel fault. Irix is the only sensible choice.

What do I use my sgi for: nothing. It serves as an icon of mid90s design.
I would like to use it but every project I dream up either exceeds my featureset or budget.

I made it silent running, run at 1600x1000, and a little opengl in glut/C. I wont light it in blue LEDs, install a mini-itx or get rid of it
R12 300 O2, nice case. Not giving up yet!

Did I neglect to mention that I have an Octane sitting under the same desk which is actually running IRIX?

that part was redundant.

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DECUS Member 368596

I've run gentoo on an octane once upon a time

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

"InfiniteReality Graphics - Power Through Complexity"

fixed.

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DECUS Member 368596

Heck.. I run Debian on a MIPS computer router that packs a whole lot more oomph than the O2 MIPS computer on my desk. This is getting complicated. Long story short: I'm going to give IRIX another try this weekend.

In her new location (the office of the laboratory I work in) the O2 is my Unix terminal. I also use it to play MP3s, make automatic backups, read PDFs... is very handy to have if there: small, reliable, silent and nice

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_Betty Blue_
R12000A 400 Mhz; 1 Gb RAM; 72 Gb 15K HDD; IRIX 6.5.29
CrystalEyes; Dial Box; O2Cam "ZEYE"; external Toshiba SD-M1711 DVD-ROM; Octane speakers;
Lock bar; SGI microphone.
Mods: PSU Noctua fan; internal Toshiba SD-M1401 DVD-ROM; Adaptec AIC-7880P SCSI card.

_REKIEM_I7_
Seasonic X 1250W PSU / Intel I7 2600k 4 x 5,00 Ghz / 2 x Gainward 2Gb GTX 560Ti Phantom 2 / 32 Gb DDR3 / Intel x25-M 160 Gb SSD and 2 x 1,5 Tb HDDs
_Lazarus_
2 x Intel Xeon MP Gallatin 3,00 Ghz with 4 MB cache / Zotac 512Mb GT430 / 12 Gb DDR266 ECC / 4 x Maxtor Atlas 146GB 10K V U320

I use my Indigo as a bookend, a duty which it fulfills both admirably and competently.

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"Was it a dream where you see yourself standing in sort of sun-god robes on a
pyramid with thousand naked women screaming and throwing little pickles at you?"

At university we used to use the original Apple Macs or Mac Pluses for that.


R.

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死の神はりんごだけ食べる

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