Subject: Finally, a press release.

From: Alex deVries <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1999 02:41:39 -0500 (EST)

http://www.sgi.com/newsroom/press_releases/1999/january/servers.html

I'm not sure it says much really concrete, but it is interesting.

I wonder how this'll change the way this group operates.  A lot of us have
learned an amazing amount through Linux on Indy, and I think we've
produced something remarkable.  Let's hope making Linux official only
adds to it.

- Alex

-- 
Alex deVries, puffin on LinuxNet.
I know exactly what I want in life.

---

From: [email-masked] (Ariel Faigon)
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1999 01:14:15 -0800 (PST)

:
:
:http://www.sgi.com/newsroom/press_releases/1999/january/servers.html
:
:I'm not sure it says much really concrete, but it is interesting.
:
Hi Alex (and Ralf, Miguel, David, Alan, Mike, Larry, Greg, Richard,
Bent, Kurt, Jon, Bob, Bill, Dave, David, Steve, Alistair, Eric,
Thomas, Andi, Mark, Oliver, Leon, Ulf, Honza, and apologies to
whoever I forgot to mention inside or outside SGI)

Basically this is the first public and official, even strategic
SGI commitment to Linux so I think we should all take the
time and celebrate the moment.

Beau Vrolyk who is directly quoted in the release many times
is a Senior VP reporting directly to Rick Belluzzo, our CEO.

The bottom line is that all the top management at SGI is
recognizing the importance of Linux.  This is in part thanks
to Linus and all the contributors who kept the faith and put
long hours without being paid for it into Linux and Open Source
in general and Linux/SGI in particular to make it the amazing success
that it is today.  Personally, for me this is a dream come true
after over 3 years of evangelizing Linux / Open Source at SGI
(and many many of e-mails of encouragement to Beau and others :-)

:I wonder how this'll change the way this group operates.  A lot of us have
:learned an amazing amount through Linux on Indy, and I think we've
:produced something remarkable.  Let's hope making Linux official only
:adds to it.
:
Note the part that explicitly mentions you all:

"The company has actively worked with the Open Source community by
 supporting Linux since the 1994 introduction of its Indy® workstation
 and with support for Samba and HylaFax. In December 1998, the company
 joined Linux International and introduced support of Samba 2.0 for its
 OriginTM server line, enabling data consolidation and the world's fastest
 data interoperability among Windows® and UNIX platform clients. Silicon
 Graphics is the first commercial UNIX vendor to support Samba software,
 a widely used suite of open source programs that simplifies integration of
 multi-platform environments."

You should be all proud of the work you've done.  The best moments
are just ahead of us !

:- Alex
:
:-- 
:Alex deVries, puffin on LinuxNet.
:I know exactly what I want in life.
:
:

-- 
Peace, Ariel

---

From: [email-masked] (William Fisher)
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1999 12:01:03 -0800 (PST)

> (and many many of e-mails of encouragement to Beau and others :-)
	This month's issue of the the IEEE Computer Magazine, February
	1999, Pages 125-128, has a very well written editorial about the
	"Linux" and Open Source "movement". The article/editorial is titled
	"The Open Source Acid Test" and was written by Ted Lewis.

	If I can find an on-line version, I'll e-mail it to the mailing list.
	For those that take this publication it is a pretty good read.

	Ted Lewis's bottom line is that the Linux and Open Source movement
	has been gaining market share starting with nothing both because is
	is "free" and because it is simple and relatively easy to extend
	since the Linux kernel is still a small number of lines of code.

	His main argument is that the first wave of market acceptance is
	"easy" since you are starting from zero. When "Linux or Open Source"
	becomes a competitive threat to the major computer vendors and software
	vendors, Microsoft and the others will use the "absorb-and-extend"
	used against Netscape, to neutralize your market penetration and
	reduce your competitive threat.

	Also these is a nice discussion on the total-cost-of-ownership of
	software products, and a number of graphs of the complexity versus
	time of OS's and applications.
> 
> :I wonder how this'll change the way this group operates.  A lot of us ha=
> ve
>  supporting Linux since the 1994 introduction of its Indy=AE workstation
>  data interoperability among Windows=AE and UNIX platform clients. Silicon
	The Linux and *BSD Communities I believe are just beginning to see
	the the limits of "free" volunteer labor. Jordon Hubbard state of the
	Union message to the FreeBSD mailing list notes a couple of disturbing
	trends.

	How the future of the Open Source movement and any business'es which
	are based on this model will play out in the silicon valley will be
	interesting to watch.

	A number of the steps which have occurred in the Open Source
	movement are predicted by a number of Ted's observations. I wonder
	how far it will go until Microsoft does something to co-op it.

-- Bill

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 30 Jan 1999 10:59:18 +0100

On Fri, Jan 29, 1999 at 01:14:15AM -0800, Ariel Faigon wrote:

>  and with support for Samba and HylaFax. [...]"

Except that in '94 the MIPS port was started without any help from SGI.
About the most friendly cites from various SGI representants I was dealing
with at that time was ``What is Linux?''.  The SGI/Linux world started
for real in May '96 when DaveM started at SGI porting my MIPS kernel to
the Indy.  Similar I remember comments in the HylaFax package I downloaded
from one of SGI's ftp servers after mid '95 a file which clearly said that
the author Sam Leffler would not be supported by SGI to do HylaFax.

Times have changed since then ...

  Ralf

---

From: [email-masked] (Ariel Faigon)
Date: Sun, 31 Jan 1999 03:33:25 -0800 (PST)

:
:On Fri, Jan 29, 1999 at 01:14:15AM -0800, Ariel Faigon wrote:
:
:> "The company has actively worked with the Open Source community by
:>  supporting Linux since the 1994 introduction of its Indy® workstation
:>  and with support for Samba and HylaFax. [...]"
:
:Except that in '94 the MIPS port was started without any help from SGI.
:About the most friendly cites from various SGI representants I was dealing
:with at that time was ``What is Linux?''.  The SGI/Linux world started
:for real in May '96 when DaveM started at SGI porting my MIPS kernel to
:the Indy.  Similar I remember comments in the HylaFax package I downloaded
:from one of SGI's ftp servers after mid '95 a file which clearly said that
:the author Sam Leffler would not be supported by SGI to do HylaFax.
:
Ay Ralf you nitpicker :-)
Give those who wrote the PR the mercy of the doubt ...

Sam was on the SGI payroll when he was working on HylaFax
and so were many others SGI employees contributing to free software
even before 1994.  Besides, you are right, certainly with regards
to Linux.  it should have been 1996.

:Times have changed since then ...
:
Indeed.

-- 
Peace, Ariel