From: spl@ivem.ucsd.edu (Steve Lamont)
Subject: SGI sales practices (Was: Crimson (Was: Kubota Announcement?))
Organization: University of Calif., San Diego/Microscopy and Imaging Resource
Lines: 49
NNTP-Posting-Host: ivem.ucsd.edu

In article <30523@hacgate.SCG.HAC.COM> lee@luke.rsg.hac.com (C. Lee) writes:
>The original posting complained (1) about SGI coming out with newer (and
>better) architectures and not having an upgrade path from the older ones,
>and (2) that DEC did.

No.  That's *not* what I was complaining about, nor did I intend to
suggest that DEC was any better than SGI (let me tell you about the
Lynx some day, but be prepared with a large sedative if you do...).  My
comment regarding DEC was to indicate that I might be open to other vendors
that supported OpenGL, rather than deal further with SGI.

What I *am* annoyed about is the fact that we were led to believe that
we *would* be able to upgrade to a multiprocessor version of the
Crimson without the assistance of a fork lift truck.

I'm also annoyed about being sold *several* Personal IRISes at a
previous site on the understanding *that* architecture would be around
for a while, rather than being flushed.

Now I understand that SGI is responsible to its investors and has to
keep showing a positive quarterly bottom line (odd that I found myself
pressured on at least two occasions to get the business on the books
just before the end of the quarter), but I'm just a little tired of
getting boned in the process.

Maybe it's because my lab buys SGIs in onesies and twosies, so we
aren't entitled to a "peek under the covers" as the Big Kids (NASA,
for instance) are.  This lab, and I suspect that a lot of other labs
and organizations, doesn't have a load of money to spend on computers
every year, so we can't be out buying new systems on a regular basis.
The boxes that we buy now will have to last us pretty much through the
entire grant period of five years and, in some case, beyond.  That
means that I need to buy the best piece of equipment that I can when I
have the money, not some product that was built, to paraphrase one
previous poster's words, 'to fill a niche' to compete with some other
vendor.  I'm going to be looking at this box for the next five years.
And every time I look at it, I'm going to think about SGI and how I
could have better spent my money (actually *your* money, since we're
supported almost entirely by Federal tax dollars).

Now you'll have to pardon me while I go off and hiss and fume in a
corner somewhere and think dark, libelous thoughts.

							spl
-- 
Steve Lamont, SciViGuy -- (619) 534-7968 -- spl@szechuan.ucsd.edu
San Diego Microscopy and Imaging Resource/UC San Diego/La Jolla, CA 92093-0608
"My other car is a car, too."
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