[comp.windows.x] SGI licencing of X windows

rosalia@noether.UUCP (Mark Galassi) (05/02/89)

I found out that Silicon Graphics gives you the distribution of X
windows for free, but charges you a certain monthly amount (in our
case $15/month).

Here is what I was wondering:

1. can one get the tape and not the support, thus not having access
   to the hotline etc?

OR

2. does the X distribution from MIT have the drivers and other
   special things for the personal IRIS?

If either of these were the case, we would be willing to get X
without the support from SGI.

Thank you very much,
-- 
    {These opinions are mine, and should be everybody else's :-)}
                            Mark Galassi
                        rosalia@mozart.UUCP     rosalia@sunysbnp.BITNET
                        rosalia@noether.UUCP    rosalia@noether.sunysb.edu 

les@unicads.UUCP (Les Milash) (05/02/89)

In article <237@noether.UUCP> rosalia@noether.UUCP (Mark Galassi) writes:
>I found out that Silicon Graphics gives you the distribution of X
>windows for free, but charges you a certain monthly amount (in our
>case $15/month).
speaking for myself only {
	we're using the MIT stuff, with some patches that were 
	supposedly authored by SGI folks that our sysop ftp'd down
	from some machine at MIT, and it doesn't exactly seem "X compilant" 
	to me.  largely, but the differences don't look like they're
	gonna be one-line changes to fix.

	that's with the 4D-70G as the server.  using it on the client side
	with a "known good" server, things are fine, and of course those
	R2000's are quick application servers.

	but man! when it does work does it ever work fast!!! BraVo!
	Running an app on a Sun4 with a 4D drawing your lines! Yes yes!
}
	if anybody (from SGI?) can tell me that it's cause i'm stupid
	and there's some better version i ought to be using PLEASE DO SO.

Les Milash
Unicad Inc.
303-443-6961

eap@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Eric Pearce) (05/03/89)

  I just installed the X source tape we got from SGI.  I don't know if
  we are paying for it or not.  It seems to have the same problems as
  the one I got off expo.lcs.mit.edu, but I can't verify that they are
  the same at the moment.  When compiling the server, it will complain
  about a missing "/usr/include/bitmap.h" when doing the "server/ddx/sgi/4d"
  directory.  I managed to get this file from someone who had an older
  release of IRIX (still 3.1 though) on their IRIS personal.   

  Some other things you need to fix are:

  server/ddx/sgi/4d/sgigl.c & sgiio.c change "WINSHUT" to "WINCLOSE"

  clients/xinit/xinit.c - It could not find "setpriority" 

  clients/xdm/daemon.c - use the bsd'ish "(void) ioctl (i, TIOCNOTTY,0)"
                              instead of "(void) ioctl(i, TIOCTTY, &zero)"
		         also was missing "sys/ptyio.h".

  I'll put these in a patch file when I get them all together, but
  that should be enough to get you going for the moment.

  It looks like I got farther than the person who made the sgi tape,
  as they still had these errors in their log file from when they
  installed it.

  I was rather disappointed in it once I got it running.   This is on
  an IRIS "power series" GT and it was slower than a Sun 3/50 for most
  of the clients and demos.  "ico" runs at a good clip, but that's
  about it.   The server seems to crap out often.  I also had problems
  with resizing the windows.  I found it useful to be able to xterm
  into it from my Sun though.  

  If anybody has a "fast" X11R3 running on their Sgi, I would like to
  hear about it.

  (In all fairness, I have not asked SGI about these problems yet).

  -e

-- 
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mah@hpuviea.UUCP (Michael Haberler) (05/03/89)

From article <237@noether.UUCP>, by rosalia@noether.UUCP (Mark Galassi):
> I found out that Silicon Graphics gives you the distribution of X
> windows for free, but charges you a certain monthly amount (in our
> case $15/month).

I think the worldwide transmission cost for your query would cover a 
couple of years of SGI support. Go sign up. :-)

-michael
-- 
Michael Haberler		mah@hpuviea.uucp 
Hewlett-Packard Austria GmbH, 	...mcvax!tuvie!hpuviea!mah
Lieblgasse 1 					...hplabs!hpbbn!hpuviea!mah
A-1220 Vienna, Austria		Tel: (0043) (222) 2500 x412 (9-18 CET) 	

msc@ramoth.SGI.COM (Mark Callow) (05/06/89)

In article <237@noether.UUCP>, rosalia@noether.UUCP (Mark Galassi) writes:
> I found out that Silicon Graphics gives you the distribution of X
> windows for free, but charges you a certain monthly amount (in our
> case $15/month).
> 
As far as I know the $15 is for support.

> Here is what I was wondering:
> 
> 1. can one get the tape and not the support, thus not having access
>    to the hotline etc?
Ask your salesman or customer support.

> 
> OR
> 
> 2. does the X distribution from MIT have the drivers and other
>    special things for the personal IRIS?
Yes and no.  The X distribution has a verson of the drivers for SGI.  However
the product quality X we are on the verge of releasing (in Irix 4D1-3.1G)
is very different and very much superior.  We have put a lot of work into
it and it runs anywhere from 5 to 100 times faster than the stuff we
contributed to the MIT tape last November.  It also has several hundred
official patches and other bug fixes.

--
	-Mark