6 ms·

I learned that Windows NT/2000 was considerably cheaper, had a much shorter lead time on hardware, ran the same software, could be run by mere mortals thus had

I learned that Windows NT/2000 was considerably cheaper, had a much shorter lead time on hardware, ran the same software, could be run by mere mortals thus had a better ROI.

lproven 4y ago
That is why SGI developed a range of non-PC compatible x86 workstations, long before Apple did the same. http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/507/SGI-320-Visual-Workstation/ http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/507/SGI-320-Visual-Wo... http://www.sgistuff.net/hardware/systems/vw320540.html http://www.sgistuff.net/hardware/systems/vw320540.html
- wil421 4y ago
  I saw someone selling something similar to your first link on my local Craigslist years ago. He wanted more than I was willing to spend. There was also an SGI sever that was huge, loud, and had crazy power requirements. The price was cheap but power costs were way too much for a mortal to run.
- pharaohgeek 4y ago
  And, considering what other PCs looked like at the time, they were beautiful machines! Everything else was just a beige box.
  - bluGill 4y ago
    Even today. Well the boxes are black now (sometimes white), but never the beautiful colors SGI had. I wish someone made a case that looked that nice today. Or maybe I have bad taste, but I don't care, I still liked their purple.
  - LargoLasskhyfv 4y ago
    Actually there were some nice beige boxes then, also black(with some silver applications), or even colored. Very streamlined design. And you could actually sit, or even stand on them. They were just rare. But you could get them. But since the PC-segment of the market was the low end, that was more work and unusual.
- bluGill 4y ago
  Its too bad SGI couldn't figure out how to make it. They made some beautiful hardware.
- kanwisher 4y ago
  Pretty sure they made x86 machine so close to their death it didn't matter. Also the machines only ran windows not Irix (their unix)
- somat 4y ago
  And sgi still could not compete, the basic problem was they were(at the begining) 5 years ahead of everyone else, but were 10 times as expensive, if that was worth it to you you would buy it, however due to the economy of scale there was a lot of money in those terrible "pc's" and not only were they were catching up quick they were a lot more inexpensive. So as a last ditch effort sgi moves to the intel arcitechure chips but now have nothing to differentiate them, still cost too much, and did not make the move to personal music players that saved apple. In hindsight, sgi as an independent computer manufacture could could never have won against the cheap fast hardware from intel vendors, but damn do I miss them, the hardware was always amazingly stylish, performant and cool, and they put a lot of effort into the irix desktop environment. I do have to admit that irix was weird as hell underneath, but I think that is the end result of any commercial operating system, windows, solaris, macos are all very weird underneath as well. I am a bsd guy at heart so that is my gold standard for a logical consistent os, but even linux is straightforward and simple compared to the commercial os's, something about being able to poke around in the innards make for better looking innards. is the best I can come up with.
abudabi123 4y ago
Is there a running total and cost of totally failed projects hosted on the Sun Java/Microsoft Windows stack that rarely gets media scrutiny?
- gumboza 4y ago
  Ironically I actually worked for one. Operations team were windows only. Software team were java only. $12.2m wasted on not delivering an ERP system which was eventually replaced with SAP which cost twice as much and run on some Oracle stuff. SAP got replaced last year with custom software on .Net on AWS by 4 people in only 9 months. On the original project I was the Unix expert and not needed at all so I played Solitaire for 6 months and got paid for it.
- pjmlp 4y ago
  Why Java? There are tons of Fortune 500 running .NET and IIS powered websites out there. I know for sure some european airlines are running their ticket systems in such stacks. If you know how to debug ASP.NET applications you will eventually discover them.
awiesenhofer 4y ago
Interesting, what did you use before/after?
- gumboza 4y ago
  Before Solaris on Ultra 30. After Windows 2000 Compaq Workstations. Software demands were EE/EDA stuff like Cadence, Zukon.

I learned that Windows NT/2000 was considerably cheaper, had a much shorter lead time on hardware, ran the same software, could be run by mere mortals thus had a better ROI.

lproven 4y ago

That is why SGI developed a range of non-PC compatible x86 workstations, long before Apple did the same. http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/507/SGI-320-Visual-Workstation/ http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/507/SGI-320-Visual-Wo... http://www.sgistuff.net/hardware/systems/vw320540.html http://www.sgistuff.net/hardware/systems/vw320540.html

wil421 4y ago
I saw someone selling something similar to your first link on my local Craigslist years ago. He wanted more than I was willing to spend. There was also an SGI sever that was huge, loud, and had crazy power requirements. The price was cheap but power costs were way too much for a mortal to run.
pharaohgeek 4y ago
And, considering what other PCs looked like at the time, they were beautiful machines! Everything else was just a beige box.
- bluGill 4y ago
  Even today. Well the boxes are black now (sometimes white), but never the beautiful colors SGI had. I wish someone made a case that looked that nice today. Or maybe I have bad taste, but I don't care, I still liked their purple.
- LargoLasskhyfv 4y ago
  Actually there were some nice beige boxes then, also black(with some silver applications), or even colored. Very streamlined design. And you could actually sit, or even stand on them. They were just rare. But you could get them. But since the PC-segment of the market was the low end, that was more work and unusual.
bluGill 4y ago
Its too bad SGI couldn't figure out how to make it. They made some beautiful hardware.
kanwisher 4y ago
Pretty sure they made x86 machine so close to their death it didn't matter. Also the machines only ran windows not Irix (their unix)
somat 4y ago
And sgi still could not compete, the basic problem was they were(at the begining) 5 years ahead of everyone else, but were 10 times as expensive, if that was worth it to you you would buy it, however due to the economy of scale there was a lot of money in those terrible "pc's" and not only were they were catching up quick they were a lot more inexpensive. So as a last ditch effort sgi moves to the intel arcitechure chips but now have nothing to differentiate them, still cost too much, and did not make the move to personal music players that saved apple. In hindsight, sgi as an independent computer manufacture could could never have won against the cheap fast hardware from intel vendors, but damn do I miss them, the hardware was always amazingly stylish, performant and cool, and they put a lot of effort into the irix desktop environment. I do have to admit that irix was weird as hell underneath, but I think that is the end result of any commercial operating system, windows, solaris, macos are all very weird underneath as well. I am a bsd guy at heart so that is my gold standard for a logical consistent os, but even linux is straightforward and simple compared to the commercial os's, something about being able to poke around in the innards make for better looking innards. is the best I can come up with.

abudabi123 4y ago

Is there a running total and cost of totally failed projects hosted on the Sun Java/Microsoft Windows stack that rarely gets media scrutiny?

gumboza 4y ago
Ironically I actually worked for one. Operations team were windows only. Software team were java only. $12.2m wasted on not delivering an ERP system which was eventually replaced with SAP which cost twice as much and run on some Oracle stuff. SAP got replaced last year with custom software on .Net on AWS by 4 people in only 9 months. On the original project I was the Unix expert and not needed at all so I played Solitaire for 6 months and got paid for it.
pjmlp 4y ago
Why Java? There are tons of Fortune 500 running .NET and IIS powered websites out there. I know for sure some european airlines are running their ticket systems in such stacks. If you know how to debug ASP.NET applications you will eventually discover them.

awiesenhofer 4y ago

Interesting, what did you use before/after?

gumboza 4y ago
Before Solaris on Ultra 30. After Windows 2000 Compaq Workstations. Software demands were EE/EDA stuff like Cadence, Zukon.