[SunRescue] OT: FS: SGI Crimson RE

[Joshua D. Boyd]

On Mon, 9 Apr 2001 arnach560 at netscape.net wrote:

> 
> Hooray!! I second that. Let's just say, on a basic level, Linux vs. IRIX, 
> there is no comparison. Sure, Linux is a nice OS, pretty stable, blah blah 
< (insert good things about Linux here), but compared to IRIX, its pretty much 
>childs play, like IRIX reliability, scabaility, XFS, 64-bit, ccNUMA, etc.. 

Linux is pretty stable (when run on good hardware).  On 64bit hardware
linux is 64bit.  While linux on solaris is popular, I'm not sure that
linux actually runs in 64bit mode on SPARCs yet.  I think it only runs in
64bit mode on Mips R4k or better, Alpha, and IA 64.  Linux is always
getting to be more scalable, but currently it has some deficiencies
(mainly in the TCP/IP stack to my understanding).  And lastly, a
development that I'm looking forward to using, Linux is having XFS ported
to it.  For people who don't care for XFS, JFS (from IBM) is further
along, and ReiserFS is available here and now (a friend is currently
setting up a quad xeon server with a 300gig raid 5 array using RFS).
Good ccNuma support probably won't arrive till 2.6 or 3.0, but that mainly
only applies to people running super computers or Onyx2, which nobody has
discuss running linux on yet.


> After that, lets compare Linux to IRIX on an SGI machine, like my Indigo2 
> IMPACT. Absolutely no comparison whatsoever. Who in their right mind
> would want console only, when I am sitting here doing work in IFX
> Piranha in 64-bit color?? You have to be insane.

Most people who actually run Linux on IRIX run it as a server, such as the
Challenges.  Anyone who uses it as a workstation probably just has too
much time on their hands  Anyone who thinks that it will run run is crazy
since SGI is completely unlikely to support linux on their older hardware.

> And finally, Linux on a very nice PC where it belongs, versus my SGI..again 
> no comparison. Let's compare SGI OpenGL to Mesa, or ext2fs to XFS. Let's
> run high-end applications that cost more than some people's houses on
> IRIX then on Linux. Going to Linux is like going back to Windows. I'm
> sorry to say it. 

Ext2fs is no longer the only option. Houdini and Shake have been ported.
They don't cost more than a house, but they do cost more than a car.  They
mainly support HP linux machines to my understanding.  See my notes on HPs
below.

Oracle is also well supported, as is DB2.  Those apps are also pretty
stinking expensive.

While Linux has a long way to go to match SGI, I'm eager for them to be
able to solidly match 2000 in all areas.  Currently, video hardware is
still quite poorly support, or is only supported in odd ways (again, see
HP notes below).  Worse, just getting good information on the state of
hardware support is hard.  Most people writing about graphics on linux
only care about the games, which as I'm sure you know is a whole different
ball game from professional work.  I think the Matrox card is the best
supported at the moment, although Geforces are the cards of choice for the
SGI linux machines.  I'm concerned about the fact that the Geforce drivers
are binary only though.  Back under XFree 3.3.x, binary only drivers
caused a lot of problems.  I guess I'll find out more about the quality of
the nvidea binary only drivers this summer when my school converts their
current 2000 lab into a linux lab (they are buying a new 2000 lab and
actioning off the sun lab).

> Of course, I use Linux too. But on a headless PC server... thats where it 
> belongs.

I disagree.  SGIs are too expensive.  A good used SGI still costs over 600
without moniter.  I'm not saying that linux will or should replace irix
(or solaris).  But darn it, people on a budget deserve something better
that Win2k or MacOS.  When I work in web development on 98 machines, I
long for the unix environment to help with all the text processing.  The
video editors behind me spend hours on end cursing the MacOS machine they
use (a g3 with gobs of memory and disk space.  It has a video IO card,
don't know what, and a soundcard for use with protools.  Main software run
is media cleaner, Premiere, and protools) for it stability problems and
slowness.

BTW, HP makes some decent linux boxes from what I hear.  Haven't been able
to try them.  It seems that they went and ported their HP-UX x server to
linux rather than using Xfree.  They claim that their best options far
exceed an Onyx in performane.  Now, an Onyx is old stuff, so a comparison
against Octanes of Onyx2s would be more interesting.  Also, these HP
machines aren't as flexible as the Onyx2s are.  I don't know if they even
support 48bit color.  But they do at least finally offer professional
level 3D performance.

--
Joshua Boyd