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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.rmit.EDU.AU!goanna.cs.rmit.edu.au!news.apana.org.au!cantor.edge.net.au!news.teragen.com.au!news.access.net.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!news.mel.aone.net.au!grumpy.fl.net.au!news.webspan.net!ix.netcom.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news.mathworks.com!howland.erols.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!news.ecn.bgu.edu!uxa.ecn.bgu.edu!gapa From: gapa@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu (Ken Apa) Newsgroups: comp.unix.sco.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.sys.sgi.misc Subject: Re: no such thing as a "general user community" Followup-To: comp.unix.sco.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.sys.sgi.misc Date: 13 Mar 1997 20:01:55 GMT Organization: Educational Computing Network Lines: 63 Message-ID: <5g9mfj$emd@news.ecn.bgu.edu> References: <331BB7DD.28EC@net5.net> <5fhkv5$8vj$1@halcyon.com> <5fj37m$oeb$1@kayrad.ziplink.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: ecom6.ecn.bgu.edu X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.sco.misc:36620 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:37072 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:6328 comp.sys.sgi.misc:29137 Mikhail Teterin (mi@rtfm.ziplink.net) wrote: [snip] : Overpriced... : =You get what you pay for. : Nope. PentiumPRO-200 with 512 cache, lots of RAM and disks, decent : video will cost you 6-8K$ at most. Add $200 dollars for a commercial : OpenGL X-server from XInside (no hardware OpenGL acceleretion) and : you are in bussiness. You can not even get O2 with R5000 for this : kind of money, and they are slower -- you need a much pricier 10000s : to match... Sure....That's why I'm trying to sell my PentiumPro because I always use the Indigo that sits next to it. Remember, The Indigo is from 1991, and the PPro is from 1996. : My claim is based on comparision between the said PPro box runing : FreeBSD and old R4400 SGI workstation, which has 5 times more memory : (I aproximate the speed of newer O2s to the best of my knowledge). : TCL (compiled with ``-O2 -mips2'' flags is 2-2.5 times slower on : our scripts). My PPro is running Linux and has the same amount of memory as my SGI. Compile time are faster on the PPro, but at least glDrawPixels works right on the Indigo, unlike the MetroX version of OpenGL that runs on the Linux box. : Then there comes a choice of add-on hardware (like CD-ROMs, tapes, : etc.). Here SGI will just ripp you off, for "compatable hardware". I concure. That whole $1000 CD-ROM deal thay had going for a while was pretty darn silly. : Then software. C compiler for SGI costs more then my home computer : entirely, C-compiler (GNU) included. And gcc will not build on SGI : without cc already there. NFS-server is an option too (500-600$). : So is "document processing" package (without it, you can not really : view man-pages you add). No way!! Hey be fare, they give you Showcase. It's saved me from having to buy a wordprocessor just to write me resumes in. The C compile isn't that much if you buy it bundled with the machine, and you do get a heck of a lot of books with it. : Yes, Intel stinks in hardware world just about as much as Microsoft : in that of software. Still, SGI has to wise up and restructure : their pricing. You can pick up a nice O2 for $6,000. : I'd be glad to be corrected here, because I like SGI's support for : development of TIFF, hylafax, InterViews and wish them luck. I used to be anti-sgi for a lot of the same reasons, but you just need to buy a used Indy for around $2,300 to snap you out of it. You'd be supprised what you can do on an older SGI, and then you understand why they cost more. Mine is six years old and I'll probably keep it for another year. Have you ever seen an Intel machine the you can use for 7 years? Ken