Subject: Re: Getting X on Linux/SGI

From: Steve Alexander <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 14:43:21 -0700

lm@neteng (Larry McVoy) writes:
>You != <the entire customer base>.

Really?  Thanks for the tip.

-- Steve

---

From: [email-masked] (Larry McVoy)
Date: Sun, 22 Jun 1997 10:36:29 -0700

: This tells me more about this guy's determination to use Linux, come
: what may, than it does about QNX.  If he'd put half the effort into
: learning the QNX device driver model that he did into hacking Linux,
: I bet he could have solved his problem with QNX.  I certainly could.

Why are you so sure that you could have made it work?  I know Eddie,
he's pretty bright and he isn't the sort of guy to use a hammer where
you need a screwdriver, as you suggest.  Even disregarding his approach,
why are you so sure you could have made it work with QNX?  Have you solved
that problem before in QNX?  Have you developed similar systems with
QNX?  If so, was it back before QNX had VM so it was quite lightweight?
Have you revisted the issues recently?  It sounds cocky of you to suggest
that you could trivially solved the problem but I'm sure you'll be able
to back it up with all the tecnhical details.

As to your comments about the line printer driver, yes, we've heard that
story before.  It's great that you figured out how to do it right.

However, what bearing does any of this have on our topic?  The original
topic, unless I'm mistaken, was questioning whether there was a reasonable
market for Linux on embedded MIPS.  While QNX is a great system, it
doesn't run on MIPS and is therefor pretty uninteresting to us.  While 
your experiences with the line printer are cool, does the fact that you
had a learning experience with Linux driver writing have any bearing on
Linux/MIPS sales?  I'm a little lost as to where you were going with all
this.

If you want to spend time and energy here, it would be nice if you could
help by figuring out the ways that Linux could be useful, and there are
many to choose from, on MIPS.

---

From: Steve Alexander <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 17:55:53 -0700

"Christopher W. Carlson" <[email-masked]> writes:
>It is far easier (and cheaper) to get a bug fixed in Linux than in IRIX.

No doubt.

>Especially if you can't afford the maintenance fees.

I feel compelled to point out that you no longer need to be on support to get
the recommended patches for IRIX.  That's only a partial solution, but it's a
good first step.

-- Steve