IRIX 6.5.24 has been released and is shipping with all new systems from SGI worldwide manufacturing centers. The IRIX 6.5.24 release continues the focus on stability, reliability, security and compatibility required in the IRIX 6.5.xx quarterly release process.
IRIX 6.5.24 Released
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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SGI appears to be disappearing from public awareness. A few years ago everybody knew about SGI. These days one hears very little about them.
IRIX is a fine OS. But with Linux spreading like mold, how much longer will it be relevant?
“IRIX is a fine OS. But with Linux spreading like mold, how much longer will it be relevant?”
irix is pretty much relevant just like the other high end stuff like aix. it will probably stay relevant since people buy them with the hardware.
linux will not be there for alteast 5 years
Kinda old news seen that it was released on the 5th of May, i’ve had 6.5.24 on my Octane now for about 2weeks.
It’s a real pity SGI cancelled the Mips R18k (just as it was about to be released) it’s really reduced the future for IRIX that’s for sure.
What I’m waiting for is the 6.5.21m release.
SGI release the older releases free to the public, normally 3 revisions down. For those of us who rescue old SGI machines from the dumpsters, it’s nice to have relatively up-to-date machine. For now, we are left with 6.5.20, which was released in May 2003.
If your running an Octane becarefull updating to 6.5.21 if you do a live install there’s a bug in inst which will wipe the prom and leave you with an unbootable Octane. You will need to do a install from inst (at bootup time)
>Kinda old news seen that it was released on the 5th of May
I didn’t see you submitting the news in time though.
Which isn’t very much IMO. I have for the 6.5 releases 6.5 till 6.5.11 here and don’t see a reason to upgrade. I couldn’t update to SGI’s 6.5.19m release because of 100+ dependancies which i couldn’t solve.
Does anyone know till when the Octane will be supported?
It’s a pity Linux doesn’t support hardware acceleration for the graphic cards. Linux runs flawless on the R4x00 and R5000, and with some hacking it runs on the R10000 as well. But no hardware acceleration for the graphic cards
while those R4x00 and R5000 aren’t supported by newer IRIX versions anymore.
“Does anyone know till when the Octane will be supported?”
I meant UNsupported.
And huge supercomputers are dependable on IRIX. They might run on your local backbone, for example…
Irix is still relevant because is the most scalable single image Unix out there (maybe Unicos may get close), not many companies can offer a single image machine using 512+ CPUs.
I guess they have figured out that they may no longer have the desktop 3D market, so they moved to the upper scale server, visualization market (which was their main focus anyways).
They may have gone through some tough times (esp. during the Belluzo debacle) but they still are a neat technology oriented company, I still remember the technical sex-appeal that SGI enjoyed over a decade ago.
Is it alot more reliable,stable and secure than Linux ? Bsd ?
Who does the benchmarks for something like that ?
Where is the Consumer Reports for some of these claims in the software industry. Everyone claims reliability and security.
What is the Belluzo debacle if you don’t mind my asking. Also in Jurassic Park, when they are in the computer room, and that girl says “this is unix, I know this” and there is some sort of visual FS navigation tool. I believe that was one of SGI’s tools.
“and that girl says “this is unix, I know this” and there is some sort of visual FS navigation tool. I believe that was one of SGI’s tools.”
no. thats a joke. its very popular
[/begin recall]
I remember back in the day, I was exposed to an IRIX box that was working as a RIP for a color copier. The screen-saver alone was enough to make it worth wheelin’ out at 3am. Ever since then, i have wanted an SGI box, it is one of my last to add to my fleet. =)
I believe it was an Indigo, and I thought it, and the NeXTSTEP/x86 box next to it, with a SS1 clone near by, running 2.4, I was in nix heaven.
4DWM-Biyatch!
[end recall rant]
=)
No, _you’re_ wrong. It IS one of SGI’s tools. FSN 3D Navigator – http://www.sgi.com/fun/freeware/3d_navigator.html.
“What is the Belluzo debacle if you don’t mind my asking”
At some point in the late 90s SGI got a new person at the helm named Belluzo. Then he decided to start making overpriced x86 machines running NT and give a bunch of SGI’s Gl tech to M$. The resources spent in the project really hurt SGI and the MIPS development stagnated. So in the end SGI was left with a NT line that was way too expensive to be attractive, even though it had some neat features. SGI was a leader and had a strong position but after this Belluzo idiot, the company was damaged beyond repair. The guy then quit SGI and moved to Microsoft (he was probably a mole sent by Redmon to run SGI to the ground).
One of the worst things that Belluzo did was to get rid of the silicon graphics logo (the neat 3D cube) and replace it with a retarder lower case “sgi” logo. For that decision alone this fellow should not be allowed anywhere near a tech company. But that is what professional CEO’s do, the screw things up and they get an even better post as a price, while the rest of the people who work hard at engineering and production are left with their derrieres up in the air.
they are still making irix? you know they will kill it as they announced they will be moving everything ot linux
They will be focussing exclusively on Unix in the future, but they still have to support their pre-Altix products, don’t you think? It’s not like Irix has had a great deal of new future updates in the last 3 releases… except for anti-aliased desktop icons, of course. Oh well.
When did they introduce anti-aliased desktop icons?
I have an O2 that I’m about to trash. Maybe I should install one of the recent releases.
“One of the worst things that Belluzo did was to get rid of the silicon graphics logo (the neat 3D cube) and replace it with a retarder lower case “sgi” logo. For that decision alone this fellow should not be allowed anywhere near a tech company. But that is what professional CEO’s do, the screw things up and they get an even better post as a price, while the rest of the people who work hard at engineering and production are left with their derrieres up in the air.”
I happen to like the new “sgi” logo, as well as the new dark color scheme. It looks more modern and professional. Much better than the mottled gray and the cube, IMHO. I think it was a good change.
Explain the Graphics workstation software on linux initiatives and the move to concentrate on itanium + linux rather than mips. they are still releasing mips products but they have shown the public what they will do in the future. they are killing the mips due to not being able to market it… sparc based systems are also ALOT cheaper than SGI’s..they will have some problems ahead if they decide to fully kill the mips, as it may seem they may just update it like hp has been doing to parisc and alpha.. the only 3rd major dkesotp cpu is sparc64 and ultrasparc
>> (maybe Unicos may get close)
Unicos/mp is actually based off IRIX 6.5 it was developed when Cray was still part of sgi
Great business lesson, when you have a company like SGI, don’t break it up because of worry of success, like cray, mips tech, etc.. Never sell your valueable IP for short term gain to microsoft.
Hey, i love the irix window manager, can be used at Linux?
I saw that can be a Motiff Windows Manager, but and the terminal do not apear the xterm.
At my work we run two irix for broadcast productions.
Any information will be appreciated.
Tanks.
Lordello check out http://www.nekochan.net it’s a IRIX community site where you can download alot of freeware (kde 3.2 for one) for IRIX, also the forumns are great for all your IRIX questions
hey people, what is the windows manager of Irix?
dubhthach,
Tanks, but i want the original Irix, and put Gnome on Irix 🙂
The window manager is 4dwm it’s propiertry SGI, as for Gnome on sgi well only the goffice apps (abiword, gnumeric etc.) have been ported to be honest
Tanks a lot… i found an alternative project that looks like the SGI 4dwm…
“I have an O2 that I’m about to trash. Maybe I should install one of the recent releases.”
What kind of O2? If you decide to trash it, please send it to me instead. I’ll pay transport costs 8)
Always wanted to try it!
>8-}