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Apple Businesses Software Linux

Yellow Dog Linux 4.0 - Finally in Limited Release 223

Posted by simoniker from the woof dept.
sloopy writes "Terra Soft Solutions has released the long awaited and overdue next version of Yellow Dog Linux - version 4.0, for ydl.net enhanced subscribers and pre-installed on new machines, with full release to hopefully soon follow in the coming weeks. With this new release, they finally include native support for the new G5s (32-bit kernel/toolchain currently, full 64-bit soon) and continued support for the G4s and newer G3s."
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Yellow Dog Linux 4.0 - Finally in Limited Release More

Yellow Dog Linux 4.0 - Finally in Limited Release

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  • I like Linux but... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Shisha ( 145964 ) on Thursday August 05, 2004 @08:35AM (#9887583) Homepage
    I would have thought that Linux on Apple hardware makes most sense on the server side, in which case the fact that it's not all full 64-bit defeats the point.

    On the desktop side, I see no advantage of running Linux rather than OS X. Don't get me wrong, I use Linux on my IBM laptop all the time, but on OS X I can run the same programs and also all the nice Mac OS X only things like iTunes.

    • Re:I like Linux but... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by colinleroy ( 592025 ) on Thursday August 05, 2004 @08:39AM (#9887608) Homepage
      I like to run linux on my iBook (which doesn't even have OS X installed), just because it's the easiest way to have a consistent experience between computers (same softs, same config, same everything) . I also prefer lots of things of GNU/Linux over OS X, even customized OS X.

      • Re:I like Linux but... (Score:5, Informative)

        by mauryisland ( 130029 ) on Thursday August 05, 2004 @08:56AM (#9887709) Homepage
        I run YellowDog on my iBook for the same reasons as you do, and the only downside is that the silly modem doesn't work, making it necessary to boot into OS X when travelling without an ethernet or wireless connection to the Internet. Other than that, though, it's been mostly YellowDog, because I'm way more familiar with Linux.

        • Re:I like Linux but... (Score:5, Interesting)

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 05, 2004 @09:20AM (#9887893)
          Yep, I run YDL on an iBook 500 (lucky me, hw modem, but its still flakey compared to MacOS 9-X) generally because I wanted a more widely supported UNIX-like install for development, i.e. avoiding hoop jumping that used to be so common with earlier OSX releases, but are now, mostly, history...

          Secondly, YDL can run a bit faster than OSX on this hw if I use a lighter wm/desktop e.g. fluxbox, xfce, etc. In which case it can be a little faster. That being said my Pismo(also a 500) runs OSX faster than the ibook and the only real hw diff is the 66M v. 100M bus...

          Downsides: modem support is not very good(probably limited hw doc access), as is power management support(probably same as with modem), and airport support isn't too hot either(i.e. I end up doing quite a bit of manual configuring...), sound support is well, basically crap, and DVD playback non-existant...(although these last 2 are extremely minor issues for me as this system is not really for gaming or video watching...)

          In fact with recent OSX releases I have been seriously considering moving back to OSX, but am leery of dealing with all the multimeg updates(modem)... installing fink(or whatever, again multimeg + modem ick) But then I'd have good modem support, power management, sound, and airport config again(or at least in a non-manual, or not as manual sort of way...)

          Newer iBooks/Powerbooks: er... isn't there a conexant(? binary) driver for the sw/USB modem? I've heard that it introduces potential stability problems, but I've never encountered them...

          YDL itself: at the time it installed with the fewest problems v. debian/slackintosh/suse and seemed like it would receive the most attention, although it now seems that debian or gentoo would be as good alternatives if you have any clue, but I guess that you wouldn't be attempting to run linux if you didnt... I'd also hazard that maybe a Darwin based distro would be even better as the kernel would likely have better support for hw, maybe, but I've never really investigated myself as I'd rather just get all the goodies and run OSX if I was going to bother with a Darwin base...

      • Re:I like Linux but... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Shisha ( 145964 ) on Thursday August 05, 2004 @09:01AM (#9887738) Homepage
        I see your point, even though since I use the same programs (emacs, kmail, latex, gcc, gnuplot, web browser) on both, and they're the only thing I use often enough, and of course they use the same config files. I don't even get any conflicts using them concurently. The reason why I wouldn't ditch OS X is because of Mathematica, which AFAIK does not run on PowerPC Linux of any flavour Yellow Dog included.

        • Re:I like Linux but... (Score:3, Informative)

          by RedBear ( 207369 )
          The reason why I wouldn't ditch OS X is because of Mathematica, which AFAIK does not run on PowerPC Linux of any flavour Yellow Dog included.

          Hey, to anyone who wants to run Mac-only applications on top of YDL (or probably any Linux distro running on a PPC processor) you might want to know about Mac-on-Linux [maconlinux.org]. Apparently it's capable of running pretty much any version of the Mac OS from System 7.5.2 to OS X 10.3.x, at near native speeds. I've never had the chance to try it myself but it looks pretty interes

    • Re:I like Linux but... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Dielectric ( 266217 ) on Thursday August 05, 2004 @08:48AM (#9887654)
      How about for relatively recent Apple hardware that will run OS X poorly, like my aging 350MHz iMac? There is very little software left for OS 9, so just last night I was looking into converting the little blue gumball to Linux. This announcement is like a message from the computer gods for me. Linux it is!

      • Re:I like Linux but... (Score:5, Interesting)

        by amichalo ( 132545 ) on Thursday August 05, 2004 @09:35AM (#9888053)
        How about for relatively recent [emphasis added] Apple hardware that will run OS X poorly, like my aging 350MHz iMac? ... just last night I was looking into converting the little blue gumball to Linux.

        According to EveryMac [everymac.com], your computer was released 10/5/99 - that's five years give or take a few weeks. How is that relatively recent when Apple only started selling Macs 20 years ago?

        The list price was $999 which means you have gotten core computer usage for ~$200 a year, or less than $0.55 a day. Perhaps it is time to upgrade to a system that DOES run OS X.

        Did you know about this [apple.com] or this [apple.com]? Both are in the range of your existing investment - AND YOU GET A NEW APPLE COMPUTER!

        • Re:I like Linux but... (Score:4, Informative)

          by leinhos ( 143965 ) on Thursday August 05, 2004 @09:53AM (#9888267) Homepage Journal
          And then what should he do with the existing iMac, ,throw it away? He still should put Linux on it (YDL or some other distro). The point was made in an earlier post that running Linux on PPC hardware gives the user a consistent operating/user environment across platform architectures. While one could install Fink [sourceforge.net], there are still differences in the development environment that delays porting from a regular GNU/Linux environment to the BSD/OSX environment. YDL essentially is Fedora Core (1?) on PPC, so going back and forth from an Intel-based machine is relatively painless.
          • I would recommend throwing it away (or recycling it if possible).

            The reason?

            It may end up costing more to run than a new system. When you are talking about a 5 year old PC, you are talking CRT, larger (size) but smaller (capacity) hard drive, inferrior cooling methods, slower processors, ram, and networking.

            All this adds up to a system that runs slow and hot, driving up energy bills to run the system AND cool the room as well as taking a lot longer to perform a specific task, thus directly increasing ene

        • Re:I like Linux but... (Score:5, Informative)

          by macmaniac ( 734596 ) on Thursday August 05, 2004 @10:24AM (#9888627) Homepage
          According to EveryMac, your computer was released 10/5/99 - that's five years give or take a few weeks. How is that relatively recent when Apple only started selling Macs 20 years ago?

          The list price was $999 which means you have gotten core computer usage for ~$200 a year, or less than $0.55 a day. Perhaps it is time to upgrade to a system that DOES run OS X.

          FWIW, if you put at least 256mb of memory in it, you can usably run OS X on a 350. I have it running quite surprisingly well with Panther on an iMac/333, which is even worse, with 512mb of RAM. It's obviously not good for having lots of apps open or for number crunching or whatever, but it's a very good machine for browsing the 'net or email and things of that nature - which was one of the major selling points for the iMacs initially anyways.

          • It does have 384MB in it, but I was under the impression that the vid card was not well supported under OS X. Truly, I've considered it, but I don't really want to dump ~$100 into a 5 year old machine.

            I look at YDL, for me, as extended life support.
            • I've run both Jaguar and Panther on my iMac 350 over the past year. It worked fine without any tweaking. I had the model right before the DVD player was added, so I can't speak to video playback, but for everything else, it was fine. (also with 384MB RAM)
            • you could also run x11 and a lightweight window manager and kill off aqua. but... yeah, my solution to a slow running mac is either netBSD or WDL (depending on the age of the machine. those old macintosh classic's run BSD, old g3's run YDL pretty well, but kde is only a touch faster than aqua - icewm is a better solution, i've found.
        • Ha ha! But you're assuming I'm not a cheap bastard!

          BTW, I consider it relatively recent because my last Mac was a 6100/60. Not a bad machine in it's day.

          Believe me, I've drooled over the iBook as an inexpensive OS X entry. Someday...
          • tangent to the argument, but to most of us mac users, your imac isn't that old. It's definitely at it's tail end, and thank god for linux, that can add more life, but many mac users are doing fine on 4 or 5 year old machines, many without any major upgrades.

            My beige G3 with an upgraded CPU sits on my room mates desk where it gets 4 or more hours use a night.

            My G4 tower is still my editing station. It has undergone numerous upgrades from the day it arrived as a stock G4/400, but professional editing needs
        • Good sales pitch, but the question wasn't, "should I buy a new Mac?" (I mean, do you really think that didn't occur to him?) The question was if the distro would work on his aging machine. Which is an entirely valid query, considering Macs are built to last long past their usefulness... And that one of Linux' selling points, if I'm not mistaken, is that it is a speedy and capable OS to an outdated system.
      • Agreed! What's your experience with WINE on PPC hardware? My friends still get together for StarCraft lan parties, and where OS 9 will run StarCraft quite nicely (including game delivered right button support), I don't want to dedicate the machine to StarCraft. Linux would make my three old Macs useful for more than the occational lan session, but I've not messed with WINE on PPC and StarCraft is their primary function. Ha, that sounds cool (:

        • WINE does not currently run on PPC hardware, at all, since it is an API implementation, not a emulator. There is a project going to combine WINE with a hardware emulator (BOCHS) and that will then work, but very slowly.

          There is a Mac-On-Linux project that is in some ways similar to WINE on x86, and you can run MacOS 9 on top of Linux on PPC. For more information see their site [maconlinux.org]

      • How about for relatively recent Apple hardware that will run OS X poorly, like my aging 350MHz iMac?

        Mac OS X 10.3 runs just fine on the 350 mHz iMac. My parents are running it on one and they have had few, if any, problems. The big thing is to make sure that you have at least 384 MB of RAM in the machine, any less and you will run into swap quickly which slows the machine down considerably.

        It won't be a speed demon by any means but you can surf the web, use Microsoft Word and Excel, play some of the l

      • How about for relatively recent Apple hardware that will run OS X poorly, like my aging 350MHz iMac?

        Hi, I don't know if you realize this, but your 350Mhz iMac (slot loading?) is capable of running OS X 10.3 adequately for common desktop uses, provided you make sure it has the latest firmware update and give it plenty of RAM (Crucial.com is a good place to get RAM for Apple computers). Might want to upgrade the hard drive too, to at least 10-20GB, but that's no big deal. Couple hundred dollars and you'll
      • How about for relatively recent Apple hardware that will run OS X poorly, like my aging 350MHz iMac?

        Your 350mhz iMac runs OS X poorly? I'm on one right now, and it runs great, without any upgrades. If you upgrade the RAM, it'll be even better. OS X 10.1 might run a tad slow on it (of course the first version won't be as fast as the improved one), but Panther is blazing. With all due respect, you're flat-out wrong on OS X's performance.

        Fortunately, with OS X every time a new version comes out it runs be

    • Re:I like Linux but... (Score:2, Informative)

      by nbert ( 785663 )
      Don't get me wrong, I use Linux on my IBM laptop all the time, but on OS X I can run the same programs and also all the nice Mac OS X only things like iTunes.
      You also could run all your OSX apps using http://www.maconlinux.org/ [maconlinux.org]. It's pretty fast and reliable afaik

    • But..... (Score:4, Funny)

      by coolmos ( 138993 ) on Thursday August 05, 2004 @08:58AM (#9887716)
      With OSX, those nice guys at SCO won't sue you. You really need Linux to get them after you.

      Run, Yellow dog, run !

    • Re:I like Linux but... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 05, 2004 @09:09AM (#9887799)
      For us Linux users (who see no point in running OSX), it makes sense to get a laptop that just works(tm), and for that purpose Apple laptops tend to beat most of what the PC world puts out.

      For an Apple-fan, it may not make sense to run Linux on an iBook, because the alternative is running OSX.

      But for a Linux-fan, running Linux on an iBook makes sense because the alternative is a Dell.
    • On the desktop side, I see no advantage of running Linux rather than OS X. Don't get me wrong, I use Linux on my IBM laptop all the time, but on OS X I can run the same programs and also all the nice Mac OS X only things like iTunes.

      I primarily run OS X these days, but I've lived with Yellow Dog on an older iBook and it was a great experience. Nobody is even close to Terrasoft's Mac hardware support, particularly on laptops. My iBook YDL 3.0 install was even better behaved on PPC than its parent, Red Hat

  • Yellow Dog Linux (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bunburyist ( 664958 ) on Thursday August 05, 2004 @08:36AM (#9887594)
    From the site, YDL will "Bridge the gap between Intel and Apple, between x86 and PowerPC. Once you have become comfortable with the KDE or Gnome desktop, you can sit down with any Linux computer and feel right at home.
    Linux will be around for a very long time. It may change, grow, expand, but it will most likely never die. No corporation (even Microsoft) can halt the production of Linux as everyone has the opportunity to offer improvements, to help it become better than it was. Linux users will never be in the position of finding their OS is no longer supported."
    This is cool! Basically it allows you to keep all your existing stuff (from what i gathered) and move to a completely different and (in many people's opinion) better processor architecture, not to mention fancy keyboard/mouse with cool looking box/monitor. Question: Can you dual boot it though? because OSX is so damn pretty and it has X11 to support some linux st0ff.

    • Re:Yellow Dog Linux (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I haven't tried YDL yet, but I'm dualbooting my ibook with gentoo and OSX so there should be no problem.

      And of course there is Mac on Linux which let's you run OSX at allmost native speed while working in linux.
      • I haven't tried YDL yet, but I'm dualbooting my ibook with gentoo and OSX so there should be no problem.

        I can beat that. :) I have OS X (Panther), Mandrake Linux 9.1, NetBSD 1.6.2, and OpenBSD 3.5. Four operating systems, five if you count System 9.2. It's a bit of a pain to boot the BSDs, but it all works.

        Oh, it's an iBook dual-USB 600, upgraded to 640 megs RAM and an 80 gig hard drive (boy was THAT a pain).

    • Re:Yellow Dog Linux (Score:5, Informative)

      by colinleroy ( 592025 ) on Thursday August 05, 2004 @08:41AM (#9887619) Homepage
      Question: Can you dual boot it though?

      Sure, you can. The boot loader on ppc linux is 'yaboot' and handles that fine.

    • Re:Yellow Dog Linux (Score:5, Informative)

      by jusdisgi ( 617863 ) on Thursday August 05, 2004 @08:44AM (#9887631)

      Yes, you can dual-boot. Furthermore, with mac-on-linux [maconlinux.org], you can run your OSX installation in a window on linux. Not emulation, either...it just boots the os native.

  • Doesnt run on 17in gen 1 powerbook :( (Score:3, Informative)

    by smittenracing ( 790911 ) on Thursday August 05, 2004 @08:37AM (#9887595)
    too bad it wont run on my 17 inch gen 1 powerbook :(

  • support dropped (Score:5, Informative)

    by zenrandom ( 708587 ) * on Thursday August 05, 2004 @08:39AM (#9887605) Journal
    The unfortunate thing is that YDL has dropped support for the oldworld rom architecture. So now your beige g3's and the wallstreet powerbooks and earlier are no longer officially supported.

    • Re:support dropped (Score:5, Insightful)

      by bedouin ( 248624 ) on Thursday August 05, 2004 @08:59AM (#9887721)
      Yeah, but not supported and will not run are two different things. I'm pretty sure you can install YDL 4.0 on old-world machines, just not with Terrasoft's help.

      That said, I think that's a dumb move on their part. I'd imagine half (if not more) of YDL users are running it on old machines that either can't support OS X, or run it too sluggishly to bother. The beige G3s are still powerful machines. If you can still install Fedora on a circa-1994 Pentium, you should be able to put YDL on a G3 from 1998.
    • likewise, gentoo is a pain to install on oldworld macs. i had to use debian bootdisks to do it!
    • I believe you can run Gentoo still on the old ones?

      This page has some info... [gentoo.org]

      Check out the link on this page a few lines down about the gentoo linux ppc faq...will show you all supported macs...

  • sweet , really sweet (Score:4, Funny)

    by Krafty Koder ( 697396 ) on Thursday August 05, 2004 @08:43AM (#9887626)
    this is just brilliant prose: From their site [terrasoftsolutions.com]
    "you cradle your new 12" PowerBook G4 (small enough to hide at the office) running Yellow Dog Linux. Feeling so empowered by this transformation, you quickly demand full reimbursement for the cost of your Mac from your health insurance company, stating with affirmation that an Apple with Yellow Dog Linux is an NIH funded, clinically tested, FDA approved form of alternative medicine. And you would have walked to Canada to get one!

    Yes, this is why people run Linux on a Mac. Hard to explain, isn't it? "

  • Suffocating the old (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 05, 2004 @08:43AM (#9887630)
    I hope they update their website. Currently, it says YDL is for the home user who desires to breathe life into old hardware". [terrasoftsolutions.com].

    For those of use who continue to use a pre-G3 at home because that's all we really need, we can't use the new YDL. How many moms/aunts/not-so-technical cousins are using such older machines?

  • Finally? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by rharder ( 218037 ) on Thursday August 05, 2004 @08:44AM (#9887637) Homepage
    With this new release, they finally include native support for the new G5s...

    Finally? Goodness, you guys sure do ask a lot. G5's haven't been out all that long. =)

    • Yes, but we're linux users. We're used to linux running on an architecture long before the hardware actually exists...at least that's the way it always works with new chips from Intel and AMD.

  • Question for Yellow Dog users... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dave-tx ( 684169 ) <{moc.liamg} {ta} {todhsals+80891fd}> on Thursday August 05, 2004 @08:45AM (#9887641)
    I'm a new owner of a powerbook and have thought about installing YDL, but I haven't seen a reason for it... With X11 installed, it seems to me that I can do everything I need with OSX, which is *nix enough to do everything I do with my Fedora Core system.

    Can any YDL advocates provide some insight as to why they prefer this over OSX?

    • Re:Question for Yellow Dog users... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by IamTheRealMike ( 537420 ) on Thursday August 05, 2004 @09:00AM (#9887727)
      Well, Linux is free software (as in GNU free) which is important to some. Desktop Linux has some things that MacOS X lacks or can only gain with extra hacks. For instance, I'm very comfortable with virtual desktops in Gnome 2.6 and miss them terribly when I'm on a Windows or Mac machine. There are other reasons too - the shareware culture is still prevalent in the Mac world: you can often find yourself being asked to pay ~$30 for a little utility that would be free under Linux, if needed at all.

      Other reasons include apps like Evolution fitting in on Linux, but not on MacOS (and Evo 2 is really, really sweet, far better than Apple Mail in my estimation), improved semantic/source compatibility with the x86 Linux world, want to learn it for future job markets etc etc.

      There are lots of reasons.

    • The biggest and best reason that I am familiar with is this: Linux does not make as many demands on the computers as OS X, and is more stable than OS 9. I have an old 233 Mhz Red A iMac that was at the end of its rope. I was about to turn it into an aquarium when I learned of YDL. Now I have a functioning computer that allows me to continue using my computer that I purchased in 1998. It certainly is no racehorse, but it can browse the web and check email, has Open Office, and all of the usual trimmings
    • Can any YDL advocates provide some insight as to why they prefer this over OSX?

      It's scads faster than OSX. Scads I tell you!

  • Shameless plug alert! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jonathan_atkinson ( 90571 ) * <<jonathana> <at> <cleanstick.org>> on Thursday August 05, 2004 @08:49AM (#9887662) Homepage
    I once wrote an article which summarises my experience with Linux on Apple hardware. It was published on OSNews [osnews.com]. It's a little dated now (I wrote it a little over a year ago), but it offers my opinion on Yellow Dog Linux, which was overwhelmingly positive. Check it out here [osnews.com].

    --Jon

  • Not clear... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by tkrotchko ( 124118 ) * on Thursday August 05, 2004 @08:49AM (#9887663) Homepage
    Its not clear if the G3 PB line is supported; it might be nice to get this for the Pismo line which can be a hair too slow for OS.X.

    Any experience out there?
    • it might be nice to get this for the Pismo line which can be a hair too slow for OS.X.

      I have YDL running on my pismo, it works extremely well.

      My biggest complaint about linux on PPC is there is absolutely no flash plugin available.

  • Linux + Powerbook (Score:5, Interesting)

    by trans_err ( 606306 ) <<ebenoist> <at> <gmail.com>> on Thursday August 05, 2004 @08:54AM (#9887697) Homepage
    Finally! I have long awaited this release as YDL3 was becoming slightly dated. A lot of people ask, why Linux when I can already use my sleek powerbook to run X applications and hell even apt-get software from Fink's binary repository. The answer is the same to why someone would want to run Linux on an x86 machine. Why run linux when you could just use cgywin?

    MacOS X does Just Work, but sometimes it doesn't work the way I want it too. Sometimes I want to be able to compile any package and KNOW that it is going to work. Sometimes I want a pure linux development environment, and I am willing to take in a few of the caveats (ie. improper pmud).

    Othertimes I just feel mired by a sleek GUI when I know how quickly I can execute the same task with a full linux environment.

    Linux on apple hardware is a great thing (don't dis it until you try it :D).
    • A lot of people ask, why Linux when I can already use my sleek powerbook to run X applications and hell even apt-get software from Fink's binary repository. The answer is the same to why someone would want to run Linux on an x86 machine. Why run linux when you could just use cgywin?

      I think there are key differences:

      • It's easier to buy an x86 machine without Windows, than a Mac without a Mac OS.
      • OS X is a unix, Windows is not. Running Cygwin and X on top of Windows is much more of a kluge than it is on OS

  • Firewire boot (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Danathar ( 267989 ) on Thursday August 05, 2004 @09:02AM (#9887747) Journal
    I've have some powerbook owners who would like to be able to run Yellowdog but off of an external Firewire drive. Last I checked Yellowdog did not support this. Does anybody know what the status is on this feature.

    Even though having a dual boot system is fairly safe "if you know what you are doing" there are people who don't want to muck with their OS X disk.

  • Trying to understand the appeal (Score:4, Insightful)

    by amichalo ( 132545 ) on Thursday August 05, 2004 @09:20AM (#9887890)
    This is not a flame or a troll but a real question.

    If OS X can run most/all linux apps via X11, then why would someone want to run Yellow God native?

    I thought the achillies heal of linux is the difficult/multivariation/infinitely configurable interface. Seems like if OS X nips that issue, and offers support of linux apps (X11), then I don't get the need to buy a G5 and ditch the OS it comes with for Yellow Dog.

    • Re:Trying to understand the appeal (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      There are allready about 2 dozen posts pointing out what reasons people might have to run linux on a Mac so I won't go into this.

      There is just one point I'd like to comment on: I thought the achillies heal of linux is the difficult/multivariation/infinitely configurable interface.

      I think you thought wrong. Actually it is one of linux' greatest strength and one of the main reasons I prefer it over OSX that you can actually have the interface you like. Wether it be simply the shell, something like ion,

    • If OS X can run most/all linux apps via X11

      This isn't as easy as it sounds- you can't just install Linux apps on OS X. If you are lucky you can recompile them making minimal changes and have it work. Tools like Fink help out a lot- I guess I'd compare it to a graphical apt-get for OS X even though I'm sure that isn't entirely accurate.

      • Tools like Fink help out a lot- I guess I'd compare it to a graphical apt-get for OS X even though I'm sure that isn't entirely accurate.

        A few things.

        First of all Fink uses apt-get as part of its package management. Fink is basically a Mac OS X-enhanced version of apt-get with some other good features added in.

        Secondly, Fink is not graphical at all, it is completely command-line. There is, however, a 3rd-party graphical front end to Fink called FinkCommander.

  • IBMs article (Score:4, Informative)

    by Refrag ( 145266 ) on Thursday August 05, 2004 @09:31AM (#9888013) Homepage
    IBM has an article [ibm.com] on Yellow Dog on PowerMacs. I personally can't see running anything but Mac OS X on a PowerMac, but to each his own.

  • Money (Score:2, Troll)

    by Cajal ( 154122 )
    Does it not bother anyone that this is still only available to ydl.net Enhanced members, which means you need to pay about $90 to get it? I thought Linux was supposed to be free. :P

    • I thought Linux was supposed to be free.

      You thought wrong. Nowhere is it required that Linux be distributed for free; it's only that you must be able to distribute it yourself for whatever charge you chose, including free; also that you must distribute the source to anyone to whom you distribute the binary.

      So if a friend subscribes to YDL net, he has the authority to redistribute it to whomever he cares to for whatever price he sets it at. Many distributors of Linux have simply chosen to distribute

  • Live CDs? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by TomorrowPlusX ( 571956 ) on Thursday August 05, 2004 @10:43AM (#9888802)
    I used to run gentoo on x86 (no, I don't care about the optimization, I just liked gentoo's system for controlling daemons and whatnot ) -- overall I ran linux of some sort or another for a few years and was pretty comfortable with it.

    I moved to OS X after a linux hardware-incompatibility disaster and by and large I've never looked back. The thing is, I do simulation work in my free time that requires serious opengl and without hardware acceleration I'm SOL. Going mac made sense anyhow, since by day I'm a graphic designer and have always been on Macs, or at least since about '92. Until OS X I didn't consider the Mac to be a valid development platform, and until 10.2 I didn't consider OS X to be a valid system at all for general use )

    What I'm curious about is wether live cds for PPC are available. I had heard about a gentoo ppc livecd but I couldn't actually *find* it.

    I want to see what's happened in the few years I've been away and I'd like to see the level of hardware support. yes, I know that for my 12" PB support's going to suck, but really I just want to *see*.

    Consider this an appeal for nostalgia.
  • Now if only we can get AirPort Extreme Card drivers, we'll be all set.

    I'm not well informed on the issue, but I've heard it has something to do with the chipset manufacturer not releasing any specs or drivers for the product in question.

    I haven't seen much third party reverse engineering to create a driver for this card; perhaps because of fear of DMCA stuff.

  • Mac OS X != Linux (Score:2, Interesting)

    by emil.ede ( 702024 )
    I don't understand the opinion "why use Linux when one can run most of the linux apps in Mac OS X". Sure it's night and day from Pre-OSX but my experience is that most FLOSS applications (especially those with a GUI) work a lot worse on Mac OS X than on Linux (and to me that's logical, of course more development time goes into the linux versions than the mac ports).

    Mainstream FLOSS applications like Firefox, dcgui and X-Chat performs a lot worse (slower, less stable, etc.) on Mac OS X than Linux. Atleast t

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