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SGI to Dump NT Workstation Business, Move to Linux
Anonymous Coward writes "As part of its new restructuring SGI is spinning off its unprofitable NT workstation business and its Cray divisions. It will instead shift its Intel based products to Linux, integrating IRIX into Linux open-sourcing the merged technology, in preparation for using Intel platforms and Linux exclusively, according to Richard E. Belluzzo SGI CEO. " A lot of old news, but it's interesting to see that that they are spinning off the NT workstation business as well.
This is a good thing. SGI has a lot to offer to Linux, and the more companies that have a vested interest in Linux's success, the better the support we'll get for Linux.
With the neat things like the journalled file system and other enhancements, Linux is going to be looking better and better. I think Linux finally has enough of a foothold to stay in the picture no matter how hard MS fights.
Knock on wood.
Don't get me wrong, it's great that SGI is adopting Linux, but I can't help wondering if they'll dump Linux when the "next big thing" hits their marketing department.
The article says that SGI will integrate IRIX with Linux and release the result.
Probably a large part of that is XFS. It'll probably be a lot easier to get people to switch over if they don't have to reformat their hard drives; just install a new version of linux, set up a LILO-type configuration, and reboot. The IRIX can even remain until the user is happy with Linux.
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
on the heels of the SGI announcement, at least one "name" in the 3D Imaging world decided to hitch their wagon to SGI and Linux.
:-(.
One thing the SGI announcement does is give Linux instant cachet as a 3D rendering platform. Now all we have to do is get XFree86 4.0 out the door so that the OS matches the hype
-E
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Linux + Corel = profit. Corel was losing money left and right until they latched onto Linux. Now they've had two straight quarters of profitability, and expect more.
SGI may be hoping the same happens for them.
-E
Send mail here if you want to reach me.
Thing is, SGI is a hardware company. The OS is a cost item for them in the first place, not a profit center. In that context, Linux makes a lot of sense -- think, a low cost OS that we can customize as we see fit? The thing about NT was that SGI was not allowed to customize it, thus SGI's NT boxes looked just like Compaq's NT boxes looked just like Dell's NT boxes ..... SGI could not put their "stamp" on their NT boxes to make them special, and people avoided them in droves.
I think SGI will sell at LEAST as many Linux boxes within the next year as they sold NT boxes last year. Of course, considering the pitifully small number of NT boxes that they sold last year (38,000?), that won't be hard to do.
-E
Send mail here if you want to reach me.
Remember, if they make their own version of the kernel, they still have to release the source. If their version is good, people will fold their changes into the mainstream kernel. If not, who cares?
-E
Send mail here if you want to reach me.
That's the somewhat unclear part. MIPS will stick around, and SGI/MIPS hardware is something that would be a very sad thing to loose. Putting IRIX stuff into Linux is one thing, but my question is how willing are they to replace IRIX on MIPS with Linux?
When pondering a SGI purchace on the low end of the MIPS spectrum (from old Indy's for $600 to O2's that can go over $10,000), it would be nice to have that as an additional choice to x86 and G3. But, the reason I personally won't do it is because of IRIX... I could consider some of the used SGI/MIPS hardware from a financial point, but affording to keep up with IRIX is what holds most people back. SGI has been fairly supportive about getting Linux on the Indys...and I hope that continues.
GNU/GPL OS like Linux means you get the choice to put in some time to keep things current rather than putting money into OS subscriptions for something commercial like IRIX. That would be a new market segment for SGI's hardware, possably benifiting them greatly. But I don't see SGI making it very clear that they fully intend on helping Linux get up to speed and scaliable for some of the higher end hardware, and until they do that, I don't think they will let go of IRIX completely, only allow Linux to use parts of it so that it can be more compatiable with thier higher end hardware.
I'm sorry I am not as excited as everyone else about SGI doing Intel/Linux, to me, it's sorta just another Linux Hardware Vendor (which is good considering it _is_ SGI, and they are doing cool things even with Intel based hardware, but not overly thrilling). What I would like to see is a clearer stance on the scale up of Linux to MIPS, and how they might be willing to support Linux projects to help make Linux more ready for >4 CPU's, MIPS hardware, etc...
I saw one of the new G3 powermacs at CompUSA today while I was picking up a new modem. I played with it a bit, played the future cop demo, started up some other app, I forget what, got the message: "there is not enough memory to run . Try closing the application "Hoyle's Casino" first."
This was an app that had been in the background the whole time I was running. I see they still can't page.
I walked away, saying "yep, still sucks"
I've finally had it: until slashdot gets article moderation, I am not coming back.
While this applies specifically to Intel-based SGI systems -- not the big NUMA servers and MIPS workstatsions -- it may represent an incremental strategy to move completely to Linux over the next 5-10 years. SGI seems to be a company that could really benefit from moving completely to Linux. Unfortunately, they are going to be stuck developing and supporting Irix for a long time to come. I would be surprised if they could move the high end to Linux in less than 5 or 6 years.
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