| I have an ex-cow orker whom I regard as somewhat of a mentor. He introduced me to all things IP, Unix and HTML. He also shared my early fascination with Linux. I learned a lot from him, and perhaps above all else this is the reason I am now being paid megabucks to run very expensive computers.
He has one failing, though and this is an endemic problem with Linux users. A new server is required? Fine, we'll put together a Linux box. I have no quarrel with that for the most part, Linux does what it does quite well. However! The instant you get hold of a new computer system, they want to install Linux on it. The more obscure it is, the greater the urge.
Him: "Wow, you have an Indy now?".
Me: "Yes, I just need to get hold of IRIX and it will be up and running."
Him: (somewhat surprised) "What, you're not going to run Linux on it?"
Linux won't do a fraction of what IRIX will do on an SGI system. So yes, heretic that I am, I prefer to run the native OS.
I even read a report recently of a Linux user trumpeting about how he'd got it to run on an multiprocessor Enterprise 10000 domain. Yes, porting linux to Sparc is a great achievement. Solaris however, is generally a better option for an E10k. Why you would run Linux on such a machine is beyond me.
I can only pray that it was a "So we can say we did it" deal, a bit of OS penis waving, similar to comparing BogoMIPS.
Additional:
It is now evident that SGI are throwing their full support behind Linux, and providing support for linux developers. This was not entirely true when this node was written.
I did actually install linux on my indy just to see what it was like, but it was unstable and had very little application support. I installed IRIX again very soon thereafter. I stand by my assertion that IRIX is still the only option for this platform. | 
