| Re: IDL time test with a PowerMac G4 [message #17358 is a reply to message #17349] |
Thu, 07 October 1999 00:00   |
gurman
Messages: 82
Registered: August 1992
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Member |
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In article <mgs-0610991001290001@teton.ivsoftware.com>, mgs@ivsoftware.com
(Mike Schienle) wrote:
> In article <37FB6F9C.FD4672C8@cmdl.noaa.gov>, promashkin@cmdl.noaa.gov wrote:
>
>> Go for it Martin, the CPU case colors are so pretty, it looks so nice, too,
>> like as a soap dish!
>
> That's exactly why everyone invests in SGI machines - for the pretty
> cases. If that's really a complaint, Apple must be doing quite well.
>
>> Who cares it costs twice as much as a decent Pentium...
>> Also, you can buy endless software updates without feeling much
improvement in
>> reliability. Trust me - a faster Mac reboots faster, I had older one that
>> crashed as often as my new one (once per day on average; 3-5 times a day on a
>> bad day, when, let's say, you try to work out in the field and adapt to a new
>> network) and the new one takes 50% less time to reboot.
>
> Pavel, if you're experiencing the above you have every right to complain.
> Something is very wrong with your Macs. I'd look for extension conflicts.
> Mine are loaded to the gills and typically run for weeks without a reboot.
> That's nowhere close to UNIX stability, but far better than my experience
> with Windows systems.
>
> At my latest contract I work as one of few Macs in the midst of PC's,
> SGI's and Sun's. The IS department wont support me and in fact constantly
> tells me I won't be able to do what I continue to do: access every
> network, access every printer, exchange files with every UNIX system,
> exchange files with every PC. My latest round of corporate crap is
> described at <http://www.ivsoftware.com/IV_G3WS.html>.
>
> That article is referring to my PowerBook 1400, a three year old laptop
> with RAM, CPU and HD upgrades. Earlier this year that laptop was running
> IDL programs in 2/3 the time it took to run on an SGI Octane 200. I was
> the sole user on both systems. Within a week of that happening, I met
> every manager in the department.
This is a fascinating thread. Why is it the Macs here hang and crash
so rarely? True, they did so with great regularity before Mac OS 8.1, and
before we had the current (oops, last) generation of "blue and white" G3's
/ G4's / PowerBook G3's /iMacs.... wonder if that has anything to do with
it. And we have lots of extensions. (The first b&w G3 we got crashed a lot
too, until the ATI graphics drivers were updated amonth or two after the
product intro.)
Since the G4's beat Pentiums runnjing Windoze hands-down in IDL, the
only reason to go with the latter is if you buy two of them.... or run
Linux. The hard part for die-hard Linuxians may be that (to quote Windoze
folks talking about their platform vs. Macs) there's a lot more software
out there for one of the platforms.
As for SGI's, I can only assume that they have some properties (e.g.
visulatization s/w) that made them so beloved by those who used them. They
are in my humble eperience slow, buggy, and saddled with the version of
unix that is simultaneously least standard and (after Solaris, which has a
big cross-section because of its huge market share) the most likely to
show up in CERT advisories.
Just because I can't explain the attraction doesn't mean it didn't
happen.... just like NT vs. Mac OS. In the case of SGI's, I harbor a
suspicion that movie execs wanted them because they were the most
expensive solution....
My $0.02,
Joe Gurman
--
| Joseph B. Gurman, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Solar Physics
| Branch, Greenbelt MD 20771 USA / Federal employees are still
| prohibited from holding opinions while at work. Therefore, any
| opinions expressed herein are somebody else's.
|
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