From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from cthulhu.engr.sgi.com (cthulhu.engr.sgi.com [192.26.80.2]) by neteng.engr.sgi.com (980427.SGI.8.8.8/970903.SGI.AUTOCF) via ESMTP id HAA31815 for ; Tue, 19 Jan 1999 07:14:25 -0800 (PST) Return-Path: Received: (from majordomo-owner@localhost) by cthulhu.engr.sgi.com (980427.SGI.8.8.8/970903.SGI.AUTOCF) id HAA59389 for linux-list; Tue, 19 Jan 1999 07:13:30 -0800 (PST) mail_from (owner-linux@relay.engr.sgi.com) Received: from dataserv.columbus.sgi.com (dataserv.columbus.sgi.com [169.238.139.130]) by cthulhu.engr.sgi.com (980427.SGI.8.8.8/970903.SGI.AUTOCF) via SMTP id HAA50181; Tue, 19 Jan 1999 07:13:26 -0800 (PST) mail_from (david@carrera.columbus.sgi.com) Received: from carrera.columbus.sgi.com by dataserv.columbus.sgi.com via ESMTP (951211.SGI.8.6.12.PATCH1502/930416.SGI) id KAA22371; Tue, 19 Jan 1999 10:13:14 -0500 Received: (from david@localhost) by carrera.columbus.sgi.com (980427.SGI.8.8.8/970903.SGI.AUTOCF) id KAA22811; Tue, 19 Jan 1999 10:05:27 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 19 Jan 1999 10:05:27 -0500 (EST) From: david@carrera.columbus.sgi.com (David Watters) Message-Id: <9901191005.ZM37697@carrera.columbus.sgi.com> In-Reply-To: "David S. Miller" "Re: linus.linux.sgi.com" (Jan 18, 9:19pm) References: <369F8C88.39CC6B03@infopact.nl> <199901151909.LAA23245@oz.engr.sgi.com> <19990115225918.25643@uni-koblenz.de> <199901160321.TAA11493@dm.cobaltmicro.com> <36A40CBE.F55CA9F1@detroit.sgi.com> <199901190519.VAA17644@dm.cobaltmicro.com> X-Mailer: Z-Mail-SGI (3.2S.3 08feb96 MediaMail) To: "David S. Miller" Subject: Re: linus.linux.sgi.com Cc: adevries@engsoc.carleton.ca, ariel@cthulhu.engr.sgi.com, linux@cthulhu.engr.sgi.com, ralf@uni-koblenz.de, richard@infopact.nl Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: owner-linux@cthulhu.engr.sgi.com Precedence: bulk On Jan 18, 9:19pm, David S. Miller wrote: > Subject: Re: linus.linux.sgi.com > Date: Mon, 18 Jan 1999 23:40:30 -0500 > From: Eric Kimminau > > As for "screwing their customers", ask Sun when they are going to > support NT on any of their systems. > > Never, whats so wrong with that? To quote their VP of desktops "One > more Linux user is one less NT user." I think this makes their stance > on NT pretty obvious. Also look at their position in the M$ trial. > They have things like WABI, which runs on Sparc right now, so if you > just need the M$ applications, you can run them. ... > I think the problem is the direction of the thinking here. Why do we > need to bring Unix to NT, if all users want is both environments and > the applications, then bring NT to Unix since we know Unix is better > (sic) and has fewer fallacies than NT does. Everyone has to evaluate a situation from their own perspective. Here is mine as an Engineer on the sales side of SGI: 1) SGI used to get 50%+ of its revenue from CAD/CAM. 2) All CAD/CAM apps have either gone NT as their primary platform or are finishing moving to NT as their primary platform. 3) I have been involved in losses that were soley because we didn't have an NT box, regardless of being nearly 60% faster than a 500MHz Alpha/NT box on a customer benchmark. 4) WABI is neat and we have a pretty good, custom tweaked version of SoftWindows95 but you can't run ProE, SDRC, CATIA, etc. under WABI. So, for a $3-4B company to protect and win back a significant part of its past business and to resume growth, SGI _HAD_ to build an NT box. We all have to cope with that fact. It sure would be nice for that _VERY SMALL_ group of users that want to run UNIX on the 320/540 if there was a Linux port available soon. The question I ask you is would SGI have been wiser and gained back its share of what was once a $1B+ business in CAD/CAM if the 320/540 had run Linux or IRIX out of the gate? Would'n it be cool if all CAD/CAM apps went to Linux as their primary platform and not NT? The problem is that SGI can't spend billions of dollars and put its market focus into a market (CAD on linux) that doesn't exist. Best regards, David (IRIX fan, MIPS fan, but above all SGI graphics fan) -- David Watters | Silicon*Graphics Systems Engineer | http://www.sgi.com/ Silicon Graphics, Inc.| http://reality.sgi.com/davester/ (6/13/97) david.watters@sgi.com | 1.800.800.SGI1 (Sales) 1.800.800.4SGI (Support) DID 1.614.844.3820 | http://www.nintendo.com/ (N64, the $130 SGI!)