4 ms·

No dude. They are reimagining the firmware and ROMs on the mother board, and so on. I recommend looking further into it.

nikau 4y ago
I did have a read of their website, but it reads a bit like a kickstarter campaign with lots of vague statements and no details. At this stage I'm unsure what benefits it has over a blade server managed by traditional api like snmp.
- mikedelago 4y ago
  This was my take as well; bold claims with minimal details or demos on their website.
  - steveklabnik 4y ago
    Expect more details in the future. Right now we're focused on building the product.
throwawaylinux 4y ago
This is sarcasm, right?
- unixhero 4y ago
  It is not. I listened to their podcast and got my information from there, straight from Cantrill.
  - throwawaylinux 4y ago
    It just doesn't seem to offer much, for all the grandiose claims. Who is going to pay a premium to have "reimagined" firmware and ROMs? Or yet another proprietary hypervisor? Or a stack that seems to be built around Solaris? It looks like a vanity or nostalgia project started by old Solaris folk, as far as I've seen.
    - steveklabnik 4y ago
      Here is a recent thread where someone asks the same questions, and gets a bunch of answers from various people: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32039943 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32039943
      - throwawaylinux 4y ago
        It's mostly the same sort of handwaving though, which I still don't understand. "anyone who has at least a rack full of Dell/HPE hardware" Big enterprise and government customers want white glove support, 10+ year continuity, ISV certification for their hardware. They will pay a premium, but they expect a premium and not in reimagined firmware, but really support. I can't see how Oxide could compete there or why it would want to. "If Oxide computers had existed when I was working on sorting out the infrastructure for in-country domestic payments at Visa, I'd have lobbied pretty hard to adopt them. Assembling basically the same thing from a bunch of random vendors and terribly integrated software was an infuriating, expensive process that only achieved great results because we invested the time and money into it that I'd have rather budget allocated to writing core payments & settlement applications." I'm not doubting this person's story, but perhaps he doesn't know exactly what Oxide would give either. This kind of thing is exactly what you can write a check to Dell or HPE for and they've already assembled those things with their boxes and their hardware partners they've got the firmware and software working, and the solution is all certified by SAP and Oracle and Microsoft and whoever else. But Visa didn't go that way, they instead paid the premium for experts on staff or contracted to do more of it in house. And they got a great result. Between the two, I'm having a hard time seeing where Oxide would fit. Pay a premium for the hardware solution and for the in house IT team?
        steveklabnik 4y ago
        > they expect a premium and not in reimagined firmware, but really support. I can't see how Oxide could compete there or why it would want to. One aspect of being responsible for the entire stack is that we can give excellent support. It’s never some other company’s problem. > This kind of thing is exactly what you can write a check to Dell or HPE for See my other link elsewhere in the thread for why we’re different than writing that check to Dell. But even then, this means you do know there is a market for this kind of server. It’s now “why Oxide instead of Dell” instead of “why does Oxide exist.” I’m sure lots of people will still buy servers from other folks for a very long time, but some will also choose us. That’s the joy of startups, we’ll all just have to wait and see!

nikau 4y ago

I did have a read of their website, but it reads a bit like a kickstarter campaign with lots of vague statements and no details. At this stage I'm unsure what benefits it has over a blade server managed by traditional api like snmp.

mikedelago 4y ago
This was my take as well; bold claims with minimal details or demos on their website.
- steveklabnik 4y ago
  Expect more details in the future. Right now we're focused on building the product.

throwawaylinux 4y ago

This is sarcasm, right?

unixhero 4y ago
It is not. I listened to their podcast and got my information from there, straight from Cantrill.
- throwawaylinux 4y ago
  It just doesn't seem to offer much, for all the grandiose claims. Who is going to pay a premium to have "reimagined" firmware and ROMs? Or yet another proprietary hypervisor? Or a stack that seems to be built around Solaris? It looks like a vanity or nostalgia project started by old Solaris folk, as far as I've seen.
  - steveklabnik 4y ago
    Here is a recent thread where someone asks the same questions, and gets a bunch of answers from various people: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32039943 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32039943
    - throwawaylinux 4y ago
      It's mostly the same sort of handwaving though, which I still don't understand. "anyone who has at least a rack full of Dell/HPE hardware" Big enterprise and government customers want white glove support, 10+ year continuity, ISV certification for their hardware. They will pay a premium, but they expect a premium and not in reimagined firmware, but really support. I can't see how Oxide could compete there or why it would want to. "If Oxide computers had existed when I was working on sorting out the infrastructure for in-country domestic payments at Visa, I'd have lobbied pretty hard to adopt them. Assembling basically the same thing from a bunch of random vendors and terribly integrated software was an infuriating, expensive process that only achieved great results because we invested the time and money into it that I'd have rather budget allocated to writing core payments & settlement applications." I'm not doubting this person's story, but perhaps he doesn't know exactly what Oxide would give either. This kind of thing is exactly what you can write a check to Dell or HPE for and they've already assembled those things with their boxes and their hardware partners they've got the firmware and software working, and the solution is all certified by SAP and Oracle and Microsoft and whoever else. But Visa didn't go that way, they instead paid the premium for experts on staff or contracted to do more of it in house. And they got a great result. Between the two, I'm having a hard time seeing where Oxide would fit. Pay a premium for the hardware solution and for the in house IT team?
      - steveklabnik 4y ago
        > they expect a premium and not in reimagined firmware, but really support. I can't see how Oxide could compete there or why it would want to. One aspect of being responsible for the entire stack is that we can give excellent support. It’s never some other company’s problem. > This kind of thing is exactly what you can write a check to Dell or HPE for See my other link elsewhere in the thread for why we’re different than writing that check to Dell. But even then, this means you do know there is a market for this kind of server. It’s now “why Oxide instead of Dell” instead of “why does Oxide exist.” I’m sure lots of people will still buy servers from other folks for a very long time, but some will also choose us. That’s the joy of startups, we’ll all just have to wait and see!