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 <eak@detroit.sgi.com>
>
> 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!)
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