4 ms·

Everything about Oxide's gear sounds like fun. I imagine it must be a bit like what working with minicomputers in 70s thru the 90s was like. I did a little wor

Everything about Oxide's gear sounds like fun. I imagine it must be a bit like what working with minicomputers in 70s thru the 90s was like. I did a little work in the late 90s with Alpha-based machines. I was impressed at those machines didn't seem like the hack-job crap that PC-based stuff was (with simulated chips from the early 1980's hiding out in dark corners because "compatibility") and still is today. I'm betting working with Sun gear felt similar, though I never got to work with it. Just having an honest-to-God serial console, as opposed to crappy bag-on-the-side things that scrape video memory and pretend to be "legacy" PC input devices, would be an amazing thing. I'll never be able to work with their stuff because I don't work with Customers at that scale. I'm also vastly unqualified to work for them at their current stage. I suppose maybe someday they'll need field service technicians... I can hope, I guess.

soneil 3y ago
I really wish they'd do a tour of it, hardware & software. They've gotta be proud as hell of what they've pulled off, it boggles my mind that they're not more eager to show it off.
- EvanAnderson 3y ago
  I'd fly out to their factory on my dime and pay to watch a dog-and-pony show and hear a Q&A. I'm that excited about this stuff. Even if I just end up being a Customer of somebody who hosts my VM on this gear it's plenty exciting. It actually feels like a new computer, as opposed to the same old, same old offerings from the incumbents.
- newsclues 3y ago
  They need to get Linus Tech Tips to do a video on the machines and people of Oxide.
  - wmf 3y ago
    And then void the warranty by water cooling it.
    - newsclues 3y ago
      Drop a sled first, then try to watercool one! It would be fun content.
- mst 3y ago
  Given it was only relatively recently they were talking about getting their first deployment out the door, I'd suspect that staying mostly quiet is strategically wise in terms of avoiding having more prospective customers come in the door at once than they can (as yet) service to the standard they want to. So "they probably really really -want- to show it off, but are showing remarkable restraint for good reason" seems at the very least plausible to me.
Aurornis 3y ago
> I imagine it must be a bit like what working with minicomputers in 70s thru the 90s was like. I had a chance to talk to someone who worked at Oxide once. I got excited because my experience matches up nicely with their products on several levels. The person got excited as well and started talking about how to interview there, but the conversation got kind of weird. They kept emphasizing how important it was to not talk about compensation in the interview. Apparently they pay engineers all the same comp (not bad, but would have been a significant step down from every offer I received during that time of my life) and they select for people who aren't interested in getting paid a lot for their unique skills. Probably not a bad deal for people who like working in that domain with like minded people. At the time I got some very uneasy feelings from being aggressively coached to not bring up compensation or ask any questions about equity during the interview like it was some unspoken rule that would get me disqualified. Maybe the person was exaggerating, but I found at least one other person with a similar story. Honestly, their comp would have been awesome if I was a single guy living in a low cost of living location and working remote, but at the time it would have meant giving up quite a bit to work for an early stage startup with high expectations and an unspoken rule that I should never ask about compensation.
- bcantrill 3y ago
  This conversation strikes me as unlikely on several levels. First, no one would have coached you on "how to interview at Oxide" because that's not where the process starts -- it starts with you preparing your materials.[0] (Our review of the materials constitutes ~95% of our process.) Second, we have always been very explicit about compensation (that is, we ourselves brought it up early in conversations); no one at Oxide would tell you to "not bring it up" because everyone at Oxide knows that it is a subject dealt with early in the process. And finally, this is all assuming that you were talking to someone before March 2021, when we published our blog post on it.[1] After the blog post, compensation simply doesn't come up: everyone has seen it -- and indeed, our approach to compensation is part of what attracted them to the company! [0] https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Xtofg-fMQfZoq8Y3oSAKjEgDQCRHx-GMSmPcxdEea4A/edit https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Xtofg-fMQfZoq8Y3oSAKjEgD... [1] https://oxide.computer/blog/compensation-as-a-reflection-of-values https://oxide.computer/blog/compensation-as-a-reflection-of-...

soneil 3y ago

I really wish they'd do a tour of it, hardware & software. They've gotta be proud as hell of what they've pulled off, it boggles my mind that they're not more eager to show it off.

EvanAnderson 3y ago
I'd fly out to their factory on my dime and pay to watch a dog-and-pony show and hear a Q&A. I'm that excited about this stuff. Even if I just end up being a Customer of somebody who hosts my VM on this gear it's plenty exciting. It actually feels like a new computer, as opposed to the same old, same old offerings from the incumbents.
newsclues 3y ago
They need to get Linus Tech Tips to do a video on the machines and people of Oxide.
- wmf 3y ago
  And then void the warranty by water cooling it.
  - newsclues 3y ago
    Drop a sled first, then try to watercool one! It would be fun content.
mst 3y ago
Given it was only relatively recently they were talking about getting their first deployment out the door, I'd suspect that staying mostly quiet is strategically wise in terms of avoiding having more prospective customers come in the door at once than they can (as yet) service to the standard they want to. So "they probably really really -want- to show it off, but are showing remarkable restraint for good reason" seems at the very least plausible to me.

Aurornis 3y ago

> I imagine it must be a bit like what working with minicomputers in 70s thru the 90s was like. I had a chance to talk to someone who worked at Oxide once. I got excited because my experience matches up nicely with their products on several levels. The person got excited as well and started talking about how to interview there, but the conversation got kind of weird. They kept emphasizing how important it was to not talk about compensation in the interview. Apparently they pay engineers all the same comp (not bad, but would have been a significant step down from every offer I received during that time of my life) and they select for people who aren't interested in getting paid a lot for their unique skills. Probably not a bad deal for people who like working in that domain with like minded people. At the time I got some very uneasy feelings from being aggressively coached to not bring up compensation or ask any questions about equity during the interview like it was some unspoken rule that would get me disqualified. Maybe the person was exaggerating, but I found at least one other person with a similar story. Honestly, their comp would have been awesome if I was a single guy living in a low cost of living location and working remote, but at the time it would have meant giving up quite a bit to work for an early stage startup with high expectations and an unspoken rule that I should never ask about compensation.

bcantrill 3y ago
This conversation strikes me as unlikely on several levels. First, no one would have coached you on "how to interview at Oxide" because that's not where the process starts -- it starts with you preparing your materials.[0] (Our review of the materials constitutes ~95% of our process.) Second, we have always been very explicit about compensation (that is, we ourselves brought it up early in conversations); no one at Oxide would tell you to "not bring it up" because everyone at Oxide knows that it is a subject dealt with early in the process. And finally, this is all assuming that you were talking to someone before March 2021, when we published our blog post on it.[1] After the blog post, compensation simply doesn't come up: everyone has seen it -- and indeed, our approach to compensation is part of what attracted them to the company! [0] https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Xtofg-fMQfZoq8Y3oSAKjEgDQCRHx-GMSmPcxdEea4A/edit https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Xtofg-fMQfZoq8Y3oSAKjEgD... [1] https://oxide.computer/blog/compensation-as-a-reflection-of-values https://oxide.computer/blog/compensation-as-a-reflection-of-...