Subject: Re: Getting X on Linux/SGI

From: [email-masked] (Larry McVoy)
Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 09:45:22 -0700

: lm@neteng (Larry McVoy) writes:
: >We own MIPS.  MIPS sold or licensed 19.2 million chips last year.  About
: >19 million of those were of the type "program the bare metal".
: 
: MIPS Chips != SGI systems.  My question still stands.

Have you forgotten Nintendo 64 sales?

MIPS Chips == $$$ for SGI.  $$$ for SGI is what it is all about, that's what
feeds the light bills.   If making a bunch of hackers happy turns into $$$
for SGI in the long term, then we do it.  At this point, I believe it is 
obvious that that is the case.

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From: Todd Shrider <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 12:06:49 -0500 (EST)

> Have you forgotten Nintendo 64 sales?

I'm not sure as of what date, probably 3/31/97:

   N64 2.6 Million units (US)
   Super NES 40 million
   Gameboy 45 million
   Original NES 62 million

Projected sales for the 12 months starting 4/1/97: 12 million N64
system units.

I'd say that if the 64 was extended (with linux) to a set-top-box type
application that this could be more like 18-20 million ($$$). If it's true
that there are about 3 million linux users (estimates taken from the 97
ALE conference) how many of these people do you think would spend $200 for
another xterm? I bet 1 million at least. So that's 19-21 million estimated
sales for the next 12 months alone! With the expandibility of the N64 and
the Linux OS I could see the 64 sky-rocketing past the original NES. I can
just hear it know "But mom, I need a nintendo 64 with linux so I can get
on the schools web page to get homework and stuff finished." Now the
parents don't have anymore excuses not to buy a system for the kid. (Why
do I feel like to tabaco industry now?) 

> obvious that that is the case.

---
Todd M. Shrider         Oops, My brain just hit a bad sector!
[email-masked]         http://www.ontko.com/~todds