Differences
===========

Recently I  have been  using Linux  computers a  lot. My  notebook runs
Linux (an Ubuntu 18.04), my main  desktop runs Linux (a Fedora 31), the
machines that I  use or used on  other places have been  Linux boxes as
well - the ODROID (Ubuntu 16.04),  the Raspberry PI B (a Raspbian). And
my tablet uses Linux, too (BQ Aquaris M10 with UBPorts).

I  have  been using  IRIX  boxes,  too.  They  are of  course  terribly
underpowered by today standards. An  they were underpowered when I have
got them (of course - I have had  to got old used ones because new ones
were way too expensive form me). I  have not used none of them from the
start of 2020. Except some short runs to sync data and so.


Today I have  spent several hours on my  SGI O2 and I also  ran the old
IRIS Indigo. An I immediately notices  that there is one big difference
between a slow Linux box and a slow  SGI - the SGI machine is much more
responsive  (and it  remain responsive  under any  load except  extreme
situations).

For example:  the ODROID XU-4 has  1 GB of RAM  (or 2?) and 4  fast CPU
cores (an ARM  ones, 1.6GHz, I think)  and a bunch of  slower ones. The
SGI O2 has 1 GB of RAM  and single-core CPU (the MIPS R10000 @250 MHz).
If the  CPU is  eavily loaded  (by the FireFox,  for example)  then its
whole GUI  is less responsive  or even  non-responsive at all  for some
time. When the O2 is heavily loaded  (by the Firefox, for example - and
the Firefox  port to IRIX  is almost unoptimised  and it's Gtk+  GUI is
slow as hell on any O2) then  the machine works normally and I can (for
example)  open the  Links or  other application  and do  something else
until the  Firefox is doing  its work. And of  course the O2  can still
play music (I like to listen the MP3 stream of the ORF Radio Wien).

And this is  not a problem of  the ODROID - I have  the same experience
with my  Ubuntu tablet. The  POWER9 workstation solves these  issues by
use of  brute force,  so I have  not noticed such  problem on  it. It's
simply not slow.

Obviously the old SGI machine is much more pleasant to use than most of
low end  Linux desktops (well, my  work tablet with W10  is not better:
sometimes it hangs for  minute or two - I ever cannot  move a pointer -
and after times continues to  work)... Of course compatibility problems
and lack  of CPU power makes  these old machines unsuitable  for lot of
tasks.


Written on the SGI O2.