Nekoware

Nekoware is a community project to create and offer a set of open-source binary packages for (primarily) MIPS4 SGI machines running IRIX 6.5.21 or later. There exists a MIPS3 version with fewer compiled packages.

Origins

Nekoware was started on nekochan.net, the main hub for fans of SGI IRIX and the MIPS based workstations made by them. The approximate beginning date appears between late 2003-early 2004 for Nekoware. The major progenitor was the administrator of Nekochan.net himself, Nekonoko.

Nekoware stagnated around 2013, and the master was shut down in 2018 alongside Nekochan.net

In February 2020, Nekoware was revived as Nekoware II by the admins of IRIX Network and some contributing developers, though it remains independent.

Content

Nekoware contains over a hundred individual packages and dependencies.

Distribution

Nekoware is distributed through FTP, HTTP and rsync mirrors. All packages are packaged in the native IRIX package format .tardist and are installed into /usr/nekoware/ path prefix. Nekoware's primary distribution requires a 64-bit, MIPS IV SGI computer running IRIX 6.5.21 or higher, though it has a MIPS III distribution maintained for the R4X00 family processors.