Octave Orgeron wrote: > No doubt! > > If Sun wanted to fix this problem and make some $$.. they should get a PCI > card made with NVidia or ATI chipset and the right ROMs to run on OBP. Make > sure it can do 3D with Xorg and sell it for less than $300. I'm sure they > would sell fast as anyone with a SPARC workstation jumps at the chance to get > a better video card! > > *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* > Octave J. Orgeron > Solaris Virtualization Architect and Consultant > Web: http://unixconsole.blogspot.com > E-Mail: unixconsole at yahoo.com > *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* > NVIIDA and ATI won't enter a contract unless Sun can prove there's demand for it. Since they've already driven off most the base, as was the intention by canning all workstations with SPARC processors, there is no factual datapoint which would allow them to work out a deal with vendors. Sun internally doesn't have all the resources necessary to make the firmware compliant, and just as EFI and OPF are concerned (Intel and PPC macs) the cards due to the extra r&d, development, and legal to go along with that, boost the price to a degree which is not palatable by the demographic asking for such an upgrade, especially by comparison with their x64 line which doesn't have this extra tax.
Sun has killed SPARC workstations, in effect cutting down the quality of applications developed for the server platform due to the fact that any software that needs to interact directly must be owned by the developer or be done internally, excluding even medium size business as a result. This kills off any possibility of homebrew drivers, or testing of such, as anyone without the still supported SPARC hardware cannot test the configurations in common use due to still expensive outright price, given demand and cost rises as a result of the stoppage, nor can any of it be ported easily, hence the limited card support due to the necessary resources. Anyone that develops applications on their SPARC workstation that needs assembly optimizations, your boat has sailed, forget about it. Anyone who deals with drivers who isn't Sun, forget about it. To provide it to customers for $300 would be a miracle, expect no less than $500 if they can promise ATI or NVIDIA a quantity of 100,000. Given their disconnect with end-users, and inability to make themselves aware of such, such industry is yet even more ignored now. Just let them bury SPARC as they intend, there's no use fighting it. Use your system until it stops running Solaris, then use FreeBSD or something. (Which due to Sun support lessening will become a more quality option than it has been in the past) So much for contracts Sun, I won't buy anything more from you given your unstable canning. I don't care about you screwing up 6,000 people's lives, everyone's doing it, and I'm one of the affected from these massive 95k/mo layoffs, it's all to do with demand and talent, no one can get work that covers cost of living, especially if you're under 30. Fire your CFO, CTO, CIO, CEO, Chairmen, and just fold the company up if you can't differentiate yourself from whitebox HP, Lenovo, Dell, or Apple equipment. Your servers are filled with intriguing tech which no doubt cost you a lot of money to get where it has been, but it doesn't put much faith in anyone not making over 500k/yr trying to run a business and support your own company through contracts who have enough overhead with labor unions, liability, taxes, and more taxes. This country is a corporate tyranny, and you're part of it, since you won't even take a risk. No one is taking risks, even when the risk is less risky than sitting on your butt. Enough with the rant, I want to see Sun succeed, but software is so commonplace, and so entrenched, you're going to have an equal or worse time trying to convince anyone outside of specific markets your tech is better. Without sysadmins and managers with some clue about your product praising what great stuff you deliver, you won't even have the possibility of contracts, let alone make up for the development costs of keeping everything going on the titanic of cash you call 3bln.. someone is apt to buy you out and sell off your assets, you have been warned. James
