With the upcoming release of IRIX 6.5.18, SGI will stop offering the maintenance stream updates for free. SGI will require special contracts for downloading new patches. OSNews recently featured an introduction to IRIX.
SGI Stops Free IRIX Updates
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
the zealots have won…
IRIX doesn’t have as much publicity as Linux, that’s why it’s being killed off
So, what the hell is a ‘maintenance stream update’ anyway? Is that like a service pack? If so, I guess this is just one more case of a company who releases broken products and then charges you to fix their mistakes? Seriously, there ought to be laws.
From that page “Let the professionals at SGI take care of your systems so you can focus on your business”.
Thanks for nothing SGI. All of a sudden I’m no longer a “professional”, and not only that, I’m required to pay for errors SGI made in the first place.
Thanks but no thanks, my old O2 is the last SGI machine I’ll ever own… Bye bye SGI, it seems you have learned from MS and their “service packs” to alienate customers (though you “only” charge for them where MS require unlitmited access to your computer to steal anything and even give that info to “any third party”).
Either way, they’re both becoming malicious; Selling products that are flawed, and now screwing your customers even more for being stupid enough to buy that flawed software in the first place.
Now, where was that FreeBSD CD…
Great !! This is one more reason to Hollywood use linux for special effects and computer graphics …
Irix is dead !
the zealots have won…
IRIX doesn’t have as much publicity as Linux, that’s why it’s being killed off
For God’s sake, I hope you aren’t saying this seriously. If you really think it was just lack of publicity, you certainly should research a lot more..
I got news for you. Irix has been dead for the last four years…
From Eugenia’s earlier review it sounds like IRIX has a really nice X-server. With SGI abonding IRIX, I hope they open source it so we can benefit from SGI’s work (say running the SGI X-server on Linux with Gnome/KDE for eye-candy and usability).
–Raging Dragon
IBM did the same for OS/2 when they (successfully) tried to “kill” the product and only support and profit from some companies that their businesses were counting on OS/2.
Eugenia, it’s not dead. Please remove “(successfully)”. That’s a false statement and you know it.
This is not a false statement and I am standing by it. IBM only (semi-)cares about OS/2 about their rich clients, not for the public versions for you and me.
I work for one of those rich clients with old OS/2 apps: even for paying clients, IBM’s OS/2 support is on-again, off-again (and nowadays mostly off).
–Raging Dragon
OS/2 should be dead. I had to install it from a box full of floppies a couple of times in the 486 era, kept you busy for a whole day… It was reasonably stable but a pretty horrible GUI.
The program that was running on it is now ported to windows…
that’s why IBM just released a web browser for it ….
IMHO BeOS is deadier than OS/2 !
—
http://islande.hirlimann.net
And you think you can make me feel unhappy with your statement Ludovic? In fact, I agree with you. Yes, BeOS is even more dead than OS/2. At least IBM is selling support for selected clients. PalmSource doesn’t even… remember that they bought BeOS.
But all in all, non of the two OSes have the support and development they had some years ago. IRIX too.
With SGI abonding IRIX, I hope they open source it so we can benefit from SGI’s work (say running the SGI X-server on Linux with Gnome/KDE for eye-candy and usability).
WTF?
i saw that statement twice in the last /. comments on the
irix osnews article, is osnews now being “intrigued” by the same GNU/Opensource zealots that believe knowing the penguin also means that they have an in-depth view into all other *ixes? what is this neverending shit about opensourcing professional products, especially irix? irix is no average desktop os for the average lameass user who is satisfied when he can look at his Word *.doc with his ezLinux install.
dude, irix’ most important feature is its scalability over the huge palette of their products (yes, it runs on your old i2 as well as your 512cpu onyx which might be clustered with others) and, sadly, not the gfx market nowadays.the whole os is geared to more complex tasks than serving the enduser with the environment to do the daily work or with some nifty flickering buttons to belie usability, stability and performance.and what is this shit of irix being dead about?
why should be irix dead?
sgi still develops new workstations/supercomputers which run it, sgi still releases new software for it nearly every month.as long as they dont make a HUGE architectural shift (i.e. itanium2) there is no way of irix being abolished (i hope one would agree that there is more software available for the special taks sgi designs its puters for on irix than on other opensource *ixes).
just because YOU dont see any development since you are used to see shitty updates every week doesnt mean irix is dead, most parts, if not all of it are well established, why change it? they run and there is mostly no obvious need to update/replace them.
why not wake up and try to see everything without being influenced by the mindnumbing penguin-userbase (/. and other derivates) ?
” you think you can make me feel unhappy with your statement Ludovic?”
Not at all …
That was not my point.
On the subject of Irix , Irix is on the verge of dying. Making a pay value what used to be free will help kill the OS faster. I have access to an Origin200 and its suck forn everything except managing it’s hardware. The 3D apps bundled with it are not so great …
—
http://islande.hirlimann.net
This will happen the same day that Cray abandons UNICOS (their Unix based OS) and starts shipping Linux on their line of systems – i.e., never (and no, I’m not talking about that clustering stuff they are doing with Dell).
So.. as a question then, what unix (BSD, linux) distribution works well on SGI (O2) hardware? I have an O2 that is pretty out of date, and I was thinking of just cleaning it off and re-installing with something else. Last I looked, many of the alternative OS’es for the box didn’t support graphics, etc.. any change on that front? I don’t want it for a server, so what else can I run?
(I’ve got a pile of Indy’s too, but thats just asking for trouble..
)
We use OS/2 for all of our legacy DOS progrms and IBM still supports us – and OS/2 is rock solid. As far as SGI goes, I doubt that SGI Irix is going anywhere soon, seeing how lately they have pulled in a whole lot of US government contracts and Irix / SGI is still the product to have when doing high-end film work.
I love and use GNU/Linux, but I would be lying to myself if I were to pretend for a second that it is ready to compete nose-to-nose with SGI in performance and scalability.
Stupid idea, from what I have read, SGI placed a lot of MIPS-specific code into their X Server (which is why it is fast), so it isn’t portable.
Please people for the love of God, know when to keep your Linuxmouthes shut! Linux is not Unix, IRIX is not Linux (and thank God for that), and most of all: IRIX IS NOT DEAD! Anyone with the capacity to read will by this time know that SGI is focusing more on MIPS/IRIX than x86/Linux.
For one thing you cannot run Linux on a 1024 processor Origin/Onyx box.
Problem is some dumb &!^@#% decided that if people want updates they will have to pay for them, not thinking that it will push some people away. But their argument will be, if a person is not paying us they are not a client.
Needless to say. This is plain stupid.
Is for the desktop on Linux.. Someone did port it, but the site disappeared. Here was an artcle on this:
http://www.linuxworld.com/linuxworld/lw-2001-01/lw-01-indigo.html
your install base will suffer.
This move is a reversal (of fortune) and this will keep people from learning IRIX, much less caring.
This is one of the best OSs on the market and they want to make it a secret.
Guess what?
They’ll succeed.
Hollywood is grooming several others.
SGI has one shot …and they’ll blow it.
DAMN shame.
I love my IRIX boxes that I admin.
BUT, I HATE Sillicon Graphics Inc. **SGI is KING when it comes to butt-humping it’s clients for money**.
We’ve sunk untold thousands into our SGI systems – only to be bled more and more by SGI.
Sorry SGI, we’ve stopped all support and end-of-life’d our Indigos, O2s, Octanes, etc.
I can no longer justify spending $$$ on silly support, when the computational community is running in droves to cheaper, better, and Free solutions.
R.I.P. IRIX
I am really unhappy with my useless O2 after I bought it and found that it couldnt do anything special. It’s actually in a corner unplugged collecting dust and holding paper down!
Trying to find an update for it’s OS was a nightmare. Altough I did and I’m running 6.5.16 now w00t! It was rediculous and the freesoftware site SGI has is embarrising. Installing software was a nightmare off the freesite with all the dependecy issues. I spent 3 days installing libraries just to install ssh/apache/php/mysql. To find out it was just as good, actually worse then the 7 other whiteboxes in my house really agrevated me! IRIX is a nasty looking OS while it may be powerful I think I will risk trying to install the Debian MIPS port! If that doesn’t work you’ll be seeing the POS on e-bay!
Lets just say my first experiences with an SGI makes me understand why their stock sucks soooooo bad! I will never recommend SGI or their equipment to anyone!
So when it comes down to it is IRIX dying or SGI?
-skeep