5 ms·

As someone who's only dealt with commodity server hardware, these specs make me salivate. And all these boot/management TUIs are just so satisfying to look at.

As someone who's only dealt with commodity server hardware, these specs make me salivate. And all these boot/management TUIs are just so satisfying to look at. (Sorry to be that guy, but just a friendly suggestion: high contrast dark themes are difficult to read for people with astigmatism. Especially since this is technical documentation, intended to be thoroughly read, you might want to consider a light theme toggle.)

all2 3y ago
> sorry to be that guy ... astigmatism Darkreader is a lovely plugin that might make your life much easier: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/darkreader/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/darkreader/ I believe there is a Chrome extension, too. It lets you set BG, FG, sepia, total contrast, etc. It is quite a neat piece of kit.
- bpye 3y ago
  I would never have thought to use an extension intended for adding dark mode, to instead view dark mode websites in a light mode, but that makes total sense!
- pxc 3y ago
  I recommend Midnight Lizard as a backup for difficult sites. It's a little heavier/slower, but sometimes works on pages where Dark Reader doesn't. You can configure Midnight Lizard not to apply to all sites by default, then selectively turn it on where Dark Reader fails.
tiffanyh 3y ago
> As someone who's only dealt with commodity server hardware, these specs make me salivate Commodity servers have the same specs. Here’s a reseller of SuperMicro servers, where you can buy similar compute on the cheap. https://www.siliconmechanics.com/systems/servers/rackform https://www.siliconmechanics.com/systems/servers/rackform
- EvanAnderson 3y ago
  I haven't worked with SuperMicro (aside from having it inside "appliance" devices that I've worked adjacent to), but I assume my experience with Dell and HP commodity servers are similar. The thick layer of hardware contrivances necessary to maintain IBM PC compatibility is unnecessary for the task of bulk hosting of x86/x64 VMs. There's a lot of hardware and software that just doesn't need to be there. Bare metal out-of-band management ends up being bolted-on to these "legacy" contrivances (scraping video memory for remote consoles, faking being USB peripherals). A serial console or SSH connection to a service processor would be vastly superior. I can't begin to count how many times an iDRAC "lied" to me about issues with a machine, or how many times the solution was "upgrade the iDRAC firmware and reboot it". I have been mostly unimpressed with the quality of firmware for motherboards, baseboard management controllers, RAID adapters, NICs, HBAs, power supplies, backplanes, front panels, etc. Every new model of system or component ends up being an exercise in fear / anticipation of problems. The integrator has very little power over the firmware quality and I can be assured that if I do have a firmware-induced issue I'm many, many steps away from actually communicating with somebody who can help. Granted, maybe if I was buying at the scale of Oxide's prospective Customers I'd have some pull with the integrators, but I'm skeptical of that, even. Oxide is actually building computers. Putting commodity motherboards into boxes with other commodity components won't ever have the level of attention to detail and integration that Oxide can provide.
- sjdmdlakziggy 3y ago
  They are not even close to the same specs.
  - upon_drumhead 3y ago
    https://www.siliconmechanics.com/system/rackform-a235.v8.1/21444 https://www.siliconmechanics.com/system/rackform-a235.v8.1/2... This is pretty darn close to the "Gimlet" Compute Sleds One 225W TDP 64-core AMD Milan CPU 1 TiB of DRAM across 16 DIMMs 12 front-facing hot-swappable PCIe Gen 4 U.2 storage devices 2 internal M.2 devices 2 ports of 100 GbE networking Point for point, the same hardware as specified.
- 3y ago
benjaminleonard 3y ago
All of our sites and indeed the web console itself are driven by the same design system and we are planning on a light theme as soon as we can. Thanks!
jxf 3y ago
> boot/management TUIs Where are you seeing these in the docs? Or are those somewhere else?
- dist1ll 3y ago
  Here https://docs.oxide.computer/guides/system/initial-rack-setup https://docs.oxide.computer/guides/system/initial-rack-setup
pxc 3y ago
> high contrast dark themes are difficult to read for people with astigmatism. Are you yourself affected by this? I have astigmatism and I keep hearing this, but I've never experienced it. If you are affected, do you keep your screen at high brightness? I'm wondering if it doesn't happen to me only because my astigmatism is mild, or if the fact that I tend/have to keep my screens at relatively low brightness plays a role. Incidentally, for different reasons, high contrast dark themes can be problematic for me as well (especially at high brightness). Dark Reader and Midnight Lizard are essential for me in keeping contrast in a comfortable range.
- benjaminwootton 3y ago
  I was about to ask the same question. I think I have moderate astigmatism and find dark mode easier on the eyes.
  - jna_sh 3y ago
    I have astigmatism and loathe dark mode. I find low contrast and soft colours easiest.

all2 3y ago

> sorry to be that guy ... astigmatism Darkreader is a lovely plugin that might make your life much easier: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/darkreader/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/darkreader/ I believe there is a Chrome extension, too. It lets you set BG, FG, sepia, total contrast, etc. It is quite a neat piece of kit.

bpye 3y ago
I would never have thought to use an extension intended for adding dark mode, to instead view dark mode websites in a light mode, but that makes total sense!
pxc 3y ago
I recommend Midnight Lizard as a backup for difficult sites. It's a little heavier/slower, but sometimes works on pages where Dark Reader doesn't. You can configure Midnight Lizard not to apply to all sites by default, then selectively turn it on where Dark Reader fails.

tiffanyh 3y ago

> As someone who's only dealt with commodity server hardware, these specs make me salivate Commodity servers have the same specs. Here’s a reseller of SuperMicro servers, where you can buy similar compute on the cheap. https://www.siliconmechanics.com/systems/servers/rackform https://www.siliconmechanics.com/systems/servers/rackform

EvanAnderson 3y ago
I haven't worked with SuperMicro (aside from having it inside "appliance" devices that I've worked adjacent to), but I assume my experience with Dell and HP commodity servers are similar. The thick layer of hardware contrivances necessary to maintain IBM PC compatibility is unnecessary for the task of bulk hosting of x86/x64 VMs. There's a lot of hardware and software that just doesn't need to be there. Bare metal out-of-band management ends up being bolted-on to these "legacy" contrivances (scraping video memory for remote consoles, faking being USB peripherals). A serial console or SSH connection to a service processor would be vastly superior. I can't begin to count how many times an iDRAC "lied" to me about issues with a machine, or how many times the solution was "upgrade the iDRAC firmware and reboot it". I have been mostly unimpressed with the quality of firmware for motherboards, baseboard management controllers, RAID adapters, NICs, HBAs, power supplies, backplanes, front panels, etc. Every new model of system or component ends up being an exercise in fear / anticipation of problems. The integrator has very little power over the firmware quality and I can be assured that if I do have a firmware-induced issue I'm many, many steps away from actually communicating with somebody who can help. Granted, maybe if I was buying at the scale of Oxide's prospective Customers I'd have some pull with the integrators, but I'm skeptical of that, even. Oxide is actually building computers. Putting commodity motherboards into boxes with other commodity components won't ever have the level of attention to detail and integration that Oxide can provide.
sjdmdlakziggy 3y ago
They are not even close to the same specs.
- upon_drumhead 3y ago
  https://www.siliconmechanics.com/system/rackform-a235.v8.1/21444 https://www.siliconmechanics.com/system/rackform-a235.v8.1/2... This is pretty darn close to the "Gimlet" Compute Sleds One 225W TDP 64-core AMD Milan CPU 1 TiB of DRAM across 16 DIMMs 12 front-facing hot-swappable PCIe Gen 4 U.2 storage devices 2 internal M.2 devices 2 ports of 100 GbE networking Point for point, the same hardware as specified.
3y ago

benjaminleonard 3y ago

All of our sites and indeed the web console itself are driven by the same design system and we are planning on a light theme as soon as we can. Thanks!

jxf 3y ago

> boot/management TUIs Where are you seeing these in the docs? Or are those somewhere else?

dist1ll 3y ago
Here https://docs.oxide.computer/guides/system/initial-rack-setup https://docs.oxide.computer/guides/system/initial-rack-setup

pxc 3y ago

> high contrast dark themes are difficult to read for people with astigmatism. Are you yourself affected by this? I have astigmatism and I keep hearing this, but I've never experienced it. If you are affected, do you keep your screen at high brightness? I'm wondering if it doesn't happen to me only because my astigmatism is mild, or if the fact that I tend/have to keep my screens at relatively low brightness plays a role. Incidentally, for different reasons, high contrast dark themes can be problematic for me as well (especially at high brightness). Dark Reader and Midnight Lizard are essential for me in keeping contrast in a comfortable range.

benjaminwootton 3y ago
I was about to ask the same question. I think I have moderate astigmatism and find dark mode easier on the eyes.
- jna_sh 3y ago
  I have astigmatism and loathe dark mode. I find low contrast and soft colours easiest.