Just a little ranting about crappy {legacy] tech support from SGI...

If you see any used SGI Intel based equipment on eBay or elsewhere, be prepared to fend
for yourself if things don't work perfectly.

SGI has discontinued sales of any Intel 32 bit products (Pentium 2, 3, Xeon, etc) and
they have terminated all active support, unless you are presently under a warranty or
service contract.  They are not selling any new service contracts for such hardware
either. They support the Windows NT or Linux version supplied with the machine (for
example, RedHat 6.2 for a quad Xeon SGI 1400) with some online drivers and online
manuals, They provide some support for Win 2000 upgrades. They provide absolutely no
support for any newer Linux distro. That's okay, RedHat 8 runs flawlessly anyway.

They have a self-help support website that they call "WebFolio" in which you register
your systems by serial number. As I've said, you can download manuals and drivers but
that's about it. 

They have a web form to ask for tech support provided that you have a valid system serial
number (which I do), but the response is just this simple...
 - Not Under warranty
 - Not under service contract
 - case closed
I do undertsand that they cannot devote resources to "old junk" they sold (for big bucks)
two or three years ago.  The guy who paid $4000 got that level of service, I bought it
from that guy for $500. I get no service. That's cool, I do understand.

They have an online knowledge base. I really only want access to their knowledge base so
I can research and solve my own hardware and software compatibility problems. Access is
denied because...  you guessed it... 
 - Not Under warranty
 - Not under service contract
 - access denied
This rude behavior, I don't understand.

Perhaps these remarks will help to decide about using SGI as your supplier for their new
64 bit Itanium hardware. They may drop that product line ike a hot potatoe just like they
dropped their 32 bit P3 Xeon line.

Of course, if you want a MIPS / Irix solution, you will find probably find somewhat
better support for their older MIPS hardware.

I have vented some frustration, thanks for listening. 

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John Lindinger         (o o)
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