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Ask LinuxPPC Co-Founder Jason Haas
Jason Haas is co-founder, marketing director, and Web manager for LinuxPPC and an all-around good Linux guy. He's also majorly anti-drunk driving these days, because last March a drunk driver ran into his car and left it looking like this. Jason was left in only slightly better shape himself, but unlike his Honda, he eventually recovered (with major help and support from his wife, Cassie) and went back to work. Ask Jason what you will; about out-of-control SUVs (I don't think he likes them), Linux on PowerPCs (something he likes a lot) or anything else. Post your questions below. Tomorrow we'll forward 10 of the highest-moderated ones to him, and we'll expect his answers back in a week or so.
what made you decide to want to do LinuxPPC development and do you think that the Macintosh hardware platform is going to remain a major player in years to come?
I'm working on (or more accurately about to start) a very math intensive client server system, where the server has to do a metric ass-load of calculations mostly on 64-bit signed integers on behalf of client machines. The data are all going to be in ram, and multi-cpu support is a good thing.
Would you recommend a PPC machine over a x86 machine for a task like this? I guess this is mainly a chipset/etc... question, but i have been unable to find that sort of information elsewhere, and i figure who better to ask, 'cause you probably have a decent gut-feeling for how the architecture works in practice on real-world data =:-)
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Play Six Pack Man. I
I'm currently looking into obtaining a PowerPC box to test out the current state of Linux on the PPC platform. Hopefully your answers will point me down the path of RISC utopia.
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I think one thing that would foster Linux PPC adoption, and PPC in general would be a relatively cheap PPC motherboard. I remember IBM released their reference design some tine ago and there was some noise from 3rd parties about product anouncements, but nothing materialized. Does anyone know when we might see something?
I've tried LinuxPPC several times over the years and have actually been disappointed. It just hasn't seemed polished and LinuxPPC, the company, has had some serious customer service problems.
Have you ever thought about or actually talked to RedHat as making LinuxPPC the RedHat Distro for PPC?
This would provide you with extra resources to keep LinuxPPC up to date and cleaner.
First of all, I'd like to commend you and your wife for your courage and determination through your ordeal! I also hope they throw the book at the jerk who caused the accident!
My question is this: Do you find that your perception of the world and what your interests, passions and abilities are, different than before your accident? Has the accident changed your interests towards the computing industry?
Thanks,
TheNecromancer
Attention all planets of the Solar Federation! We have assumed control! - Neil Peart
About a year and a half ago, my fiancée and I were in a horrible car crash as well. We were also in a small car (Nissan Sentra), and were hit head-on by an SUV. I crushed my femur, broke my hip, and 4 ribs (I walk pretty good now after 2 reconstruction surgeries). My fiancée (now my wife thank God) lost her spleen, 1/3 of her liver, compound fracture of her heel, crushed lungs, and on a respirator for 4 weeks in ICU before she started to come out of it. We are both still recovering (Someday, I'd like to stand up and have it not hurt!).
Things like this can teach you lessons, or destroy you. From that perspective, my question is: What were the biggest lessons you learned from it? (I ask that as someone who has gone through it, and learned a lot about what is important, and what is not.)
This is more of a life question than a geek one.
-Spackler
PS: Yes, we drive big trucks now (F-150), and I'd never own a small car, even if it were given to me!
During your recovery period, did you find the need to use any accessibility tools to accomplish tasks? If so, what were your impressions? Does Linux have the tools people with alternative interface needs (like text-to-speech) need to access their information?
Congrats on your recovery progress. I'm glad to see the world hasn't lost another good person to a drunk driver's carelessness.
-- "I have a great faith in fools. Self-confidence, some call it..."
1)How much can a PPC linux distro can benefit from Altivec optimization?
2)Does LinuxPPC enjoy the same degree of improved performance from additional processors that OS-X does?
flame away...
Intel hardware is a commodity; it's cheap, there are lots of peripherals for it, you can buy individual components and build your own box easily, and prices are very low.
:) Educate me.
AFAIK (which isn't far), PowerPC hardware is mostly proprietary, controlled by Apple, is more expensive, has less variety in peripherals, and you're more or less stuck buying a Macintosh just to get your PC. Not just that, but many components of many PowerPC-based computers have marginal to no support under Linux (USB is marginal, Firewire is nonexistent right now, etc).
Given all this, where is the major win in the PowerPC? Why ought my next purchase for a PC be a PowerPC running LinuxPPC/Yellow Dog/MkLinux?
I'm not trolling here; I'm just uneducated.