From: vulture@carrion.cc.ic.ac.uk (Thomas Sippel - Dau)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi,comp.os.os2.advocacy
Subject: Re: Considering getting an SGI machine...
Keywords: SGI
Date: 2 Oct 92 11:41:53 GMT
Reply-To: cmaae47@cc.ic.ac.uk
Organization: Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine

In article <kaz.718003484@du248-15.cc.iastate.edu>, kaz@iastate.edu (Jimmy Buffet) writes:
- I currently own a 486-50 EISA and am running OS/2 2.0.  Regardless of where
- I run, I can't seem to do everything I want.
.....
- So, right now, I'm looking at scraping together every cent I can and 
- getting an SGI machine, probably the Indigo.
.....
- 1.      Does (will) NT run on an Indigo?  What features will be disabled
-         running on a non 80x86 machine?  What about VDM's?
- 
- 2.      Will the supposed portable OS/2 scheduled for 1994 run on an R4000
-         based machine?  I'd really rather run OS/2 then NT?

Computer futures are like currency or pork belly futures, only more risky,
as the resulting commodity has no intrinsic value. If you have to scrape 
every last cent, pork bellies are the way to go.

- 3.      How is current dos emulation (SoftPC, I assume) on the machines?

Fair enough for all text base packages you could buy 3 years ago.

-         But will most games run quickly enough in Soft PC?  What
-         kind of graphic emulation is there?

Do you mean you waht to sell the PC to pay for the new machine ?

- 4.      What type of ray-tracers are available that aren't your usual
-         50 bizillion dollar packages, (I'd settle for half a bizillion)?
-         Animation capabilities?

You should talk to your sales organization, even if they cannot sell you 
what you need, they will put you in touch with supplyers.

- 5.      Will NT REALLY run on SGI machines?

Futures, futures ....

- 6.      What is the operating system like?  I assume some Unix clone
-         running X.  What implementation of X, if I'm corrent?

A reasonable System V based unix, with X11 release 4. Certainly on my
machine here it beats any PC botch-up, and I have just a 4D/25. You are
looking at R4000 Indigoes, machines of about 10 times the power of a 
run-of-the-mill 50 MHz 486, at less than 3 times the price ...
I know you can spend a fortune for accelerators on PCs, but the more you
"improve" them, the more botched-up they become.

- 7.      Wait, you're telling me an operating system that barely works in
-         it's native processor environment is going to run on SGi's?  
-                         (Just kidding, no flames please   :)   )
-
- 8.      If anyone has techincal specs on the lower end SGI machines (Indigo,
-         Magnum (whatever the hell it is), etc...) and pricing info, I would
-         REALLY appreciate it.  Does SGI have an educational discount policy?

Here in Great Britain they do, but I don't know about Iowa. You would not 
like the prices we pay here, somehow computer vendors seem to multiply the
US list prices with the dollar/pound rate, instead of the pound/dollar rate...

- Any ideas, thoughts, money, info, or help would be greatly appreciated.
- Sorry about the crosspost, but I trust the people on the operating system
- war front more than anyone else (I'm not going to post in the msdos groups  :))
- Again, thanks in advance for any help!

ANY machine you buy now will probably look sick in three years time, so what
you can do is:

     o  buy a machine now because somebody pays you for what you produce
        with it (Video, films, whatever...) so that in three years you can
        give the machine away because it has payed for itself, and for the 
        next one you need then.

     o  buy a machine now to develop the killer application for the machines
        that will be available in three years time. Then you can charge 
        bizillions for your applications rather than having to pay them.

     o  get somebody else to buy you a machine and the packages you want to
        use. This will surely prevent you from getting rich, but you won't 
        get that much poorer either.

                                             Thomas

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