Forgive my intrusion...I usually just lurk on this list.
I've followed most of the SGI/Irix news I've seen, and
I just cannot jump to the apparent conclusion most
people are reaching.
SGI is definitely moving in a pro-Linux direction. Of that
there is no doubt. They are, or are preparing to, market
Linux based machines....I haven't heard if they'll be MIPS
or x86 based.
What I don't see, is the move AWAY from Irix. SGI
_OWNS_ the supercomputer market, with both its
Cray and Origin2k (MIPS) lines. The fully-loaded O2k
(if memory serves...) has 512 processors; the Linux
kernel is nowhere NEAR ready to approach that scalability.
Whether it be SMP or clustering or whatever.
(yes, Unicos is the Cray OS)
Also, I read some time ago that SGI is working on 16k
processor arrays...
So perhaps on the desktop Irix will dwindle or vanish
altogether. Unless I've missed something, I do not see
SGI abandoning Irix any more than I see them abandoning
Unicos. Plus, there is still plenty of life left in MIPS.
This wasn't intended as a flame, so I hope it isn't construed
as such. I had the same discussion/posts on slashdot
when the Linux fanatics began to claim SGI would be selling
SMP x86 boxes right after the firesale of their high-end Origin and
Cray lines. Ugh.
On an aside, many of our clients want/need a robust distributed
filesystem. It would be exciting to see this grow into the choice
for WAN and high-availability filesharing. I think its worth noting
that most of the clients who want it use high-end HP, Sun and
IBM servers. (HP-UX, Solaris and AIX respectively.) In fortune-500
companies, Linux only plays a small role, and would never be
used when 24/7 support and high-availability are the primary
concern.
I personally would prefer to see a diverse number of platforms
supported...we need CODA services in our lab, which has 13
different UNIX machines (and 98/NT) of which Linux is only one.
The bosses won't front the $$ for AFS so I guess we're SOL.
Well...anyway - thanks for reading this :-)
Andrew
<lurk>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Peter J. Braam [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 1999 11:05 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Cc: Jan Harkes
> Subject: RE: Coda on Irix
>
> hi,
>
> I think it is very unlikely that we will have time to do this. Given the
> dwindling support from SGI for IRIX I question the wisdom of doing this.
>
> - Peter Braam -
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Angus Robertson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> > Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 1999 1:32 PM
> > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Subject: Coda on Irix
> >
> >
> >
> > Is there any planned support for Coda on SGI/Irix? We're
> > currently planning
> > on implementing AFS in January.
> >
