[jan-jaap]

6.2 or 5.3 is only recommended for low ram old systems really.

I disagree. And all IRIX systems are old, and low on RAM by modern standards.

The argument for IRIX 6.5.x is that most pre-compiled OSS requires it. I don't see the point of that because you're basically turning your IRIX system into a half-assed Linux clone and then you still can't use it to browse the web. IRIX as a general purpose OS or platform for modern software is dead.

As a rule of thumb, I only run 6.5 on systems with R10K or better CPUs. Indys are fun little boxes but they were introduced when IRIX 5.1 was current. Some Indigo2's will even run IRIX 4.05. Sure, they will run IRIX 6.5, but the experience will be underwhelming. Better stay with 5.3 (or 6.2 if you must have N32/64 support). IRIX 6.5 was optimized for the ccNUMA generation and it's a lot less responsive on the older systems. That makes them less enjoyable, and enjoyment is all that counts for systems that are basically toys.

Most commercial software that's workable on older systems doesn't require IRIX 6.5 but works fine on 5.2 or 6.2. Adobe, Autodesk, AVID, Corel, FrameMaker, Lightwave, none of it requires 6.5. Heck, some of it is even broken on 6.5.