> From: Pixel Fairy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: Art distribution update
> Date: Tuesday, October 28, 1997 3:26 AM
>
> On Tue, 28 Oct 1997, Jason Murdock wrote:
>
> > Couple of other things to. Red Hat is generally better giving support.
> > You might even want to consider talking to Red Hat about this. Since
they
> > are the only ones that support (with a commercial OS release anyway)
the
> > SPARCLinux and Linux/Alpha ports, they might consider offering it to
> > customers and corps as an semi-alternative to say SGI workstations.
> > POVRay, The GIMP, MicroStation (assuming they or you can convince the
>
> i though microstationcad was commercial, in fact i though it resaled for
> about 4k.
It is, but right now it's only on Linux as a student version, not a full
commercail product last time I checked.
> > makers of it to make a commercial release) and other programs on a
366Mhz
> > DEC Alpha system would be a pretty nice alternative to a ten thousand
to
>
> <little note, decs not selling graphics boxen less than 533 now, they
> match sgis octane quite well for being roughly 1/5th the price. these new
> ones are cheaper than the old 500s, at least in hollywood, and use much
> faster ram>
>
> > one million dollar SGI graphics workstation. Even SGI realizes not
> > everyone can pay that much for a graphics workstation. A Linux
graphics
>
> thats why they have plans to start making NT machines for the "low end"
> (what the O2 was originally aimed at)
Yeah, but still $5000 is pretty steap. And besides, everyone is looking at
SGI Unix based systems running the pretty graphics. If SGI or DEC were to
come out with a graphics workstation based on the P2 or even their own
chips (Linux is on MIPS and Alpha, lets not forget that) with Linux and
ports of other high end graphics programs they could be digging into a
market that even Hollywood is looking at, the small budget movies. A small
budget movie graphics house could produce with SGI quality graphics apps JP
graphics on Linux boxes for a lot cheaper, while larger movie studios can
stick with the million dollar SGI workstations they already have.
> > package might be able to compete with it. The Amiga has already proven
> > that high end graphics aren't the domain of high end workstations
anymore
> > with the early work on B5 done all Amiga. Linux _might_ be able to tap
> > that market as well.
>
> Linux still lacks the acceptance to gain developers capable of making
> it a viable alternative to SGI. thier market is in 3d. as long as they
> have the apps and the hardware acceleration, were still going to boot to
> NT for work. the gimp is good enough when im not doing print work to
> replace photshop unless i need paths. povray does not compare to high end
> packages for animation (character animation can be done in povray, i had
a
> friend who almost tore out all his brain cells doing it, and it did work,
> but it takes me hours to do with lightwave what it takes him weeks to do
> in povray)
I know, that's why I want to at least prove that a Linux based system can
compete with a more expensive NT based system and still get the job done
just as good, if not better. BTW, try the Blue Moon Rendering Tools. They
are complient with what Pixar uses... hhmm, heres an idea. Steve Jobs runs
Pixar _AND_ Apple; Apple is porting, with the help of the OSF, Linux to
PowerMacs; many Pixar employees use Linux at home, lets see if we can get
Pixar to port a few of their pro rendering tools to Linux and test it out?
You never know, just might convince a lot of people that it can be done.
> now, if only we could convince SGI to go with linux instead of NT...
> (it could save them alot time recoding) after the ports of all the alias
> wavefront software and the old IRIX tools, the other stuff could follow.
I'd love to see this. I'd love to see it done. Maybe we could try to
convince them to at least give it a shot. You never know. Sicker things
have happened.
> the other complaint SGI had was that they were hard to use, but i never
> found that to be true.
What is hard to use?
> sun is starting to make some progress, and solaris binaries are supposed
> to run under sparc/linux. I can personally vouch for how beutifull
> lightwave is on an ultrasparcII. but they are also so expensive that it
> defeats the pupose.
I know. I know. I'm trying to get my meat hooks on a Sparc 2 right now. I
want to try to see what I can do with it.
> decayed kisses,
> The Pixel Fairy
> http://www.pitzer.edu/~zkazi
One of these days I gotta learn C or something. I have too many ideas and
not enough skill to program.
jason murdock
