The sad story of Silicon Graphics

So Silicon Graphics has gone for an almost nominal sum to Rackable Systems, ending one of the saddest stories in Silicon Valley.

SGI was no Apple but it had (still has) many loyal fans. It created crack workstation and server technology, reinventing computer graphics along the way, but also made a series of mistakes and became synonmous with changes in direction and spotty balance sheets. It was a Unix and RISC computing mainstay, had a doomed love affair with Microsoft, fell for Linux and ended up hugging Intel.

It stayed niche too long or it got into commodity too late. Or it didn’t stick to its knitting. Or it was badly managed. You figure it out: it’s just sad to see another great name go.

NOTE: This story was corrected with the right name of the buying company.