3 ms·

Silicon Graphics O2 Laptop

3 points by marcodiego 6y ago

marcodiego 6y ago
Still amazes me to this day. I imagine how the world could be different if SGI had found a way to lower its prices so that the hardware could be used by mere mortals.
- LargoLasskhyfv 6y ago
  Unimpressed. Except for the keyboard. That is nice!
  - marcodiego 6y ago
    Unimpressed? With a portable O2 workstation? Did you consider that it is technology from mid 90's?
    - LargoLasskhyfv 6y ago
      Sure. Am just underwhelmed by that retro fetishism in general, happy to not have to work with that anymore. Of course those things have been the wet dream of many geeks of that time, but to be honest they have been proprietary stuff with proprietary apps which enabled some nice things, but lacked things I'd consider important. Maybe one felt important working with them at the times, maybe they've been more interesting to look at designwise. I remember them as mostly loud. I've had a few of them, as I had Sparcs from Sun, and PA-Riscs from HP. And my fucking Athlon blew them all out of the water with 1.5GB Virtual Channel Memory, a Voodoo3 3000 AGP, and some highend Hitachi 21"CRT at 1600x1200@85Hz, running software I could actually use and shape(mostly) like I wanted to, without breaking. Oh, and mostly silent, with the exception of the HDDs :-)
      - marcodiego 6y ago
        Those machines may have been a pleasure to use. I even tried some of them: sparcs, sgi and a few IBM powers. I mostly agree that " they have been proprietary stuff with proprietary apps which enabled some nice things, but lacked things I'd consider important". Nevertheless, by 1996, linux was mostly a toy and a portable SGI would definitely impress me. Although we had a SGI Fuel on our CG lab by early 2000's, linux pc's running compiz quickly stole their thunder.
        LargoLasskhyfv 6y ago
        /me mumbles: Yes, Yes. Linux, toy...but 386BSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD... I think what I meant to say by lacking things I consider important was availability of software due to ecosystem/networking effects, common peripheral standards and so on. They all have been islands, and if you didn't had the application which could really use the graphics- and/or io-system you could use them as nice bases for your living room table and using not so crappy PCs instead. Imagine putting a plate of glass horizontally over a few of them :-) I mean, I understand the fascination. Sometimes when I'm reading about the Next Cube, 'modders' putting some Turbo-board into it, or the graphics thing, turning it into a truly unique variant which was never sold as such. The same for Next-/OpenStep on PA-RISC, using a superscpecial dithering only available on that hardware. Alas, silos useless in practice. So I mostly really don't care(anymore). Sorry ;-) Still nothing like a crossover between Hypercard and Visual-Basic performing well and clicking once, running everywhere while being effortlessly understandable.
- fulafel 6y ago
  Does the N64 count?
  - marcodiego 6y ago
    No. Console prices are subsidized. The cost is amortized by licensed games. Also, N64 specs were way lower than workstations of the time.

3 points by marcodiego 6y ago

Still amazes me to this day. I imagine how the world could be different if SGI had found a way to lower its prices so that the hardware could be used by mere mortals.

LargoLasskhyfv 6y ago
Unimpressed. Except for the keyboard. That is nice!
- marcodiego 6y ago
  Unimpressed? With a portable O2 workstation? Did you consider that it is technology from mid 90's?
  - LargoLasskhyfv 6y ago
    Sure. Am just underwhelmed by that retro fetishism in general, happy to not have to work with that anymore. Of course those things have been the wet dream of many geeks of that time, but to be honest they have been proprietary stuff with proprietary apps which enabled some nice things, but lacked things I'd consider important. Maybe one felt important working with them at the times, maybe they've been more interesting to look at designwise. I remember them as mostly loud. I've had a few of them, as I had Sparcs from Sun, and PA-Riscs from HP. And my fucking Athlon blew them all out of the water with 1.5GB Virtual Channel Memory, a Voodoo3 3000 AGP, and some highend Hitachi 21"CRT at 1600x1200@85Hz, running software I could actually use and shape(mostly) like I wanted to, without breaking. Oh, and mostly silent, with the exception of the HDDs :-)
    - marcodiego 6y ago
      Those machines may have been a pleasure to use. I even tried some of them: sparcs, sgi and a few IBM powers. I mostly agree that " they have been proprietary stuff with proprietary apps which enabled some nice things, but lacked things I'd consider important". Nevertheless, by 1996, linux was mostly a toy and a portable SGI would definitely impress me. Although we had a SGI Fuel on our CG lab by early 2000's, linux pc's running compiz quickly stole their thunder.
      - LargoLasskhyfv 6y ago
        /me mumbles: Yes, Yes. Linux, toy...but 386BSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD... I think what I meant to say by lacking things I consider important was availability of software due to ecosystem/networking effects, common peripheral standards and so on. They all have been islands, and if you didn't had the application which could really use the graphics- and/or io-system you could use them as nice bases for your living room table and using not so crappy PCs instead. Imagine putting a plate of glass horizontally over a few of them :-) I mean, I understand the fascination. Sometimes when I'm reading about the Next Cube, 'modders' putting some Turbo-board into it, or the graphics thing, turning it into a truly unique variant which was never sold as such. The same for Next-/OpenStep on PA-RISC, using a superscpecial dithering only available on that hardware. Alas, silos useless in practice. So I mostly really don't care(anymore). Sorry ;-) Still nothing like a crossover between Hypercard and Visual-Basic performing well and clicking once, running everywhere while being effortlessly understandable.
fulafel 6y ago
Does the N64 count?
- marcodiego 6y ago
  No. Console prices are subsidized. The cost is amortized by licensed games. Also, N64 specs were way lower than workstations of the time.