Why use a 20 year old 500 Mhz dinosaur? Time. This machine can do everything I need (terminal, emacs, ssh, old modeling software that has a better GUI than any modern counter parts, etc) and cant do anything I should not do (browsing the internet)
Just use the O2 as a very powerful "dumb" terminal that keeps you from wasting your time. Its a great little machine.
But I would be very interested in pics, screenshots, and a rundown of your workflow if you have the time.
Seriously though, I never tried HN. Should work.
I’m increasingly shifting towards that side of the fence, looking at the web browser as the gateway to a toxic waste dump.
Luckily, I’m not doing frontend stuff, so I can survive (and blossom even) without a running browser.
The computer “feels” empty and quiet that way, like it used to feel back in the day when the modem was off.
(I occasionally window-shop vintage Sun gear like this, but SGI seemed to have more exotic unobtanium artifacts.)
I probably should be keeping an eye out for maxing out my Octane and Fuel as well now before it is really too late.
If you google it you'll see what it is. I dont have an O2 so I dont remember the details.
EDIT:
Full machines with graphics are expensive. Luckily I got my fuel for $200 back in '09. I scored a V12 from a broken machine at the time cheap.
Parts are generally cheap. At least for the Fuel, the community now knows which DELL or some other server parts are equivalent to the SGI branded ones (SATA or Gigabit cards) and a lot of stuff is useless (why care for a SCSI card?). RAM is cheap if you see this as largely a vanity thing.
Finally, if you're good at debugging X (Im not), an origin 300 is a great machine. I bought one but I have the fuel for X client (works great). If I understand the problem, around 2007-2008 something changed in X11 (Xorg??) that broke compatibility with the SGI for 3D graphics.