SGI IRIX licenses?

[Jules Richardson]

Richard wrote:
> I've not installed IRIX from scratch before.  I recently purchased
> some install media from ebay and the item description said "does not
> include licenses".  Is this boiler plate disclaimer, or am I still
> needing something else to install the OS?  Another item on ebay says
> it *does* include licenses.  Is there some sort of license key?
> Does SGI have a hobbyist/deprecated-ware license available?

I believe it "merely" means that it would be illegal to install IRIX on any 
hardware if you don't possess a valid licence key for it; I don't think any of 
the IRIX OS releases are locked in any way and *need* some sort of key to 
function.

I do recall feeding keys into the OS (6.5.3) for certain high-end video 
software many years ago though, so certainly some *apps* are crippled without 
appropriate licences (how easy it would be to circumvent that, I don't know)