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346 points BirAdam | 8 comments | | HN request time: 1.191s | source | bottom
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tombert ◴[] No.39944744[source]
There's a few cases in the history of computers where it feels like the world just "chose wrong". One example is the Amiga; the Amiga really was better than anything Apple or Microsoft/IBM was doing at the time, but for market-force reasons that depress me, Commodore isn't the "Apple" of today.

Similarly, it feels like Silicon Graphics is a case where they really should have become more standard. Now, unlike Amiga, they were too expensive to catch on with regular consumers, but I feel like they should have become and stayed the "standard" for workstation computers.

Irix was a really cool OS, and 4Dwm was pretty nice to use and play with. It makes me sad that they beaten by Apple.

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1. pjmlp ◴[] No.39945418[source]
Yes, Irix is one of the few UNIX based OSes that I actually find cool.
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2. hinkley ◴[] No.39945559[source]
It certainly got fewer complaints than HP-UX.
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3. pjmlp ◴[] No.39945668[source]
On HP-UX 10, back in 2000, the C compiler version I was using still wasn't fully ANSI C, and needed K&R C function declarations, but hey at least we had containers (HP Vault), and 64 bit file system access.
4. sys_64738 ◴[] No.39946044[source]
People are always passionate about various UNIX systems and their derivatives like Linux. Windows is so utilitarian.
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5. fuzztester ◴[] No.39946230[source]
What were the complaints that HP-UX used to get?

I used it for a while earlier at work, and don't remember many problems with it. One did have to apply OS patches fairly regularly to it, but IIRC, that process was somewhat smooth.

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6. pjmlp ◴[] No.39946948[source]
Outside Irix, Tru64, Appolo, Solaris with NeWS, NeXTSTEP, all other UNIXes are pretty meh.

Regarding Windows, some time reading the excellent Windows Internals book series is recommended.

7. hinkley ◴[] No.39946998{3}[source]
In the time of SGI, I believe it had a lot of posix compliance problems.

And if memory serves, the Bible (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/603263.Advanced_Programm...) didn’t cover it, which was a problem.

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8. fuzztester ◴[] No.39950053{4}[source]
Okay, got it. :)