Slashdot Mirror

KDE 4.x got decent. I think that KDE SC 5 series still has some time to go before it gets good. With that said, TDE is a perfectly good option for those of us that loved KDE 3.x (I use TDE on Fedora and Ubuntu). There again, I've also been playing around with MaXX desktop (Linux port of SGI's 4DWM) on some lightweight systems (read Pentium II (IBM Thinkpad 600e) and III (Dell Latitude C400, Inspiron 8100) era) that I mainly use as remote/serial terminals.

Yes, SaVi still works on SGI IRIX, as this recent January screenshot demonstrates.

You might be able to help me.

I'm really more of an experienced Alpha user than an experienced Alpha engineer or support guru. I knew how to make it kick ass on the applications that were important to me, and that was about it.

I have this old peugeot sound data systems alpha

I've heard of a number of third-party vendors that sold Alpha systems, although I've never worked with of of those systems myself.

The case has a lock and I haven't been able to break the lock yet. I wanted to drill it out, but didn't want to get metal shavings all inside. I'm thinking that I have to though.

As much as the architecture of the Alpha is unique amongst most systems you'll see today, it isn't magic. If you decide that you need to drill it out, I doubt that a new level of hell will open up and swallow you whole at that moment. The inside of the Alpha may be a little different but there will be plenty of familiar parts in there as well. And just like any other computer if you opt to drill, make sure you do a very thorough job cleaning up the insides when you're done. If you can, I'd suggest trying to set up an inverted drilling rig so that you can drill from below, rather than from above - then the shavings should tend to fall back towards the drill rather than down towards the important computer bits.

Did I mention be very careful? :)

Do you know anything about a blue screen on alphas?

Personally, no. The Alpha I used was rock solid, I think the only time I had to reboot it was to troubleshoot some flaky RAM, but it wasn't doing anything too exotic in response to the RAM problem.

Couldn't tell you what OS it was running or anything

The Alpha I used originally ran Tru64 Unix; which IIRC was somehow related to HP-UX. I've heard of Alphas running VMS or OpenVMS as well. We later moved our Alpha to Linux - I think we did either RedHat (possibly Fedora) or SuSE, although it was some time ago now.

There are some support groups around for Alpha people. If you haven't found any you like yet, you might want to try Nekochan.net. They are actually focused more on SGI hardware and software, but there are some guys there running around with Alphas as well; the link I gave should go to the HP/Compaq/DEC forum there. I'd be surprised if nobody there had a suggestion for you that could spare you the trouble of drilling into your system.

Good luck

I was always partial to the tardist.

I also use it on my O2 - it's actually not a bad platform for a small to medium sized website.

3D Graphics and modeling? I'd be happy to have something newer than Netscape 4 that runs decently.

But you can! The latest Firefox/Mozilla/OpenOffice/GIMP etc etc have all been compiled for IRIX and made available for download by the enthusiasts over at http://www.nekochan.net/

Granted, Firefox is a little sluggish on my Indy 4600/133SC, but certainly usable. It runs great on my dual R12K 315MHz Octane!

Remember to set a static route and add a search or domain line to your resolv.conf, that usually trips people up when they're trying to get a system on the net.

BTW, I wouldn't bother installing Linux unless you're interested in improving the port or just messing around.

For good links try nekochan.net, sgi stuff, and Ian Mapleson's site.

Get an old black NeXTstation or NeXT cube from eBay if you want a 4.2 BSD based machine. IIRC, the original OS, NeXTstep, was based on 4.2 BSD, while the later OS, OpenStep, was based on 4.3 BSD.

If yuo need a Silicon Graphics box to develop software on, check out http://forums.nekochan.net. Someone there can probably give you an account on a SGI IRIX 6.5.x system with gcc and/or MIPSpro. You could also buy an O2 from eBay for about $50. You'll still need to find a more recent version of IRIX, but SGI will give you all of the development tools for free if you join their "plus" developer program as a "hobbyist". SGI also gives away free accounts on their big iron Origin (IRIX) and Altix (Linux) systems, but you probably have to be a full-time serious developer for that.

That was all Irix. Irix screenshots showing the Jurassic Park interface.

For anyone who has not used an SGI machine before, windows often have one or two widgets (if two then one would be oriented on the horizontal axis, the other on the vertical) which resemble long, thin, ridged wheels. When you click and drage so as to rotate the wheel showing in a file manager window the file icons will all resize automatically in realtime and smoothly, since it is all drawn in vectors. To me this would make a graphic desktop in linux a lot more useable.

That, and the way you can use a mouse and three buttons in OpenInventor windows to navigate/manipulate in three dimensions are a couple of the best things about SGI user interfaces to my mind.

A picture of an IRIX desktop with an icon resizing wheel is here

Does Photoshop even have a IRIX version?

Photoshop 3 had an IRIX version.

That would be kinda handy, especially for all the folks snatching up O2s and Octanes off ebay. Though, I have to admit, I keep thinking about http://www.nekochan.net when IRIX comes up. Seems like most SGI users are a weird blend of engineer and artist. Take a look at the IRIX dekstop screenshot gallery section on that site to see what I mean!

really! throw as much anime images as you want, IRIX still looks like ass!