alt.hn

3/5/2026 at 3:07:20 PM

The IRIX 6.5.7M (sgi) source code

 https://github.com/calmsacibis995/irix-657m-src

by reconnecting

3/5/2026 at 4:40:30 PM

For me personally, IRIX 6.x had one of the most beautiful (and colourful) GUIs ever.

For the curious, there is a guide (1) on how to run IRIX 6.5.22 in MAME.

1. https://sgi.neocities.org

by reconnecting

3/5/2026 at 4:57:11 PM

Wow, look at those luxurious titlebars, windows edges, scrollbars, and tabs! So easy to use.

One other thing lost, their scrollbars kept an indentation of where the bar was until you let go, which was sometimes useful.

Not a fan of the busy backgrounds, but can’t win ’em all.

Does anyone have a screenshot of the window menu (right click on titlebar)? Been looking for the CUA hotkeys related to those window functions. Most still work but are not shown on Linux desktops for some reason.

by mixmastamyk

3/5/2026 at 5:26:46 PM

They also loved italic!

by sgt

3/5/2026 at 9:23:44 PM

For those interested, there is a lovely IRIX clone WM called MaXX. I've been using it for a couple months and have been quite happy with it on a remote dev machine. I believe it only runs on xorg currently.

1. https://docs.maxxinteractive.com/

by dvno42

3/5/2026 at 6:05:30 PM

What is the scrollwheel thing on the left side of some windows?

by rainingmonkey

3/5/2026 at 6:19:13 PM

As I recall that changed the size of the (vector graphic) icons in the window.

Though it has been twenty-odd years since I last used an SGI box so open to correction!

by blipvert

3/5/2026 at 7:26:18 PM

Yes, it was essentially a "zoom" wheel.

by zvr

3/5/2026 at 6:35:12 PM

A blend of nextstep and macos classic somehow.

by jnpnj

3/5/2026 at 6:40:21 PM

I thought of BeOS for some reason.

by actionfromafar

3/5/2026 at 3:21:08 PM

Unless it's true that they lost it, I really see no reason why HPE doesn't just release the official IRIX source code. It cannot be worth much at this point.

Maybe there's 3rd party code which SGI/HPE licensed? That's apparently why we can't have Operas Presto.

by mrweasel

3/5/2026 at 4:44:57 PM

Even if there isn't any 3rd party code, the whole process of going through the codebase to confirm there really isn't any 3rd party code, and generally getting the legal department to sign off on it, is a lot of work in itself. My impression is that this kind of "historic source" release typically only happens if somebody sufficiently senior in the company cares enough to actively push it through. The default is that nobody does care that much, and it doesn't happen.

"Do nothing" has essentially zero downside for a big company that happens to have something of niche interest like this in its vaults.

by pm215

3/5/2026 at 6:19:14 PM

third-party code is one thing, political correctness is another. What was acceptable in 90s brogrammer culture may not be considered acceptable by PR obsessed corporate types now.

To put this more charitably, the only reason to release something like this is to get some good PR, but if not carefully controlled, such a release could create more bad PR than good PR.

by miki123211

3/5/2026 at 6:41:01 PM

How?

by actionfromafar

3/5/2026 at 3:40:18 PM

> Maybe there's 3rd party code which SGI/HPE licensed?

IIRC, this was one of the complication of open sourcing Solaris back in the day.

by throw0101a

3/5/2026 at 4:55:48 PM

Yep, I recall one of the big components being libc i18n

by linolevan

3/5/2026 at 3:44:38 PM

An obvious source for 3rd party code is that it’s a real UNIX System V derivative, so the AT&T code would need to be cleared.

by fredoralive

3/5/2026 at 4:00:46 PM

As a long-time AIX admin I'd LOOOOOVE to see some of the AIX source.

I used to be connected to the community where stuff like this was passed around. But that was a long, long time ago.

by sedawkgrep

3/5/2026 at 6:37:16 PM

A partial but significant dump of 4.1 is easy to find. Probably leaked for/by Apple Network Server people.

by kev009

3/5/2026 at 5:49:21 PM

This leak has been floating around for years, and it's not even close to everything (i.e. no GUI pieces)

by mrpippy

3/5/2026 at 3:08:41 PM

isn't this violating copyright?

by andsoitis

3/5/2026 at 9:50:48 PM

The mods do not seem to care about pirated software (or links to tons of it) being posted here, I have seen people doing it for years now.

by majorchord

3/5/2026 at 3:59:25 PM

Dunno but the repo is 4+ years old.

by sedawkgrep

3/5/2026 at 5:09:53 PM

Interesting that GitHub recognizes "Roff" as a language.

by dboreham

3/5/2026 at 3:16:43 PM

Is this real?

by oldnetguy