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Jason Haas on LinuxPPC -- and Drunk Drivers
Math intensive server stuff
(Score:4, Interesting)
by drenehtsral
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 =:-)
Jason:
Wow, nothing like a nice, simple question to start your day. ;-D
If you're going to be working with 64-bit numbers, I would try to do a real-world test. That is, get Athlon, Alpha, Pentium 4, and PowerPC 7400 (G4) machines, and try some tests to see how quickly each of them handle integers that big. I know the PowerPC 7400 (G4) has an awesome vector calculation module (128-bit vector registers can be fun), but that's not the same thing as integers. The 7400 doesn't have any specialized integer units, whereas the Athlon and P4 do. (I'm pretty sure of this, but you should definitely do your homework before making any decisions based on this information.) It might be great for decompressing video, but for hard-core (sounding) tasks like handling 64-bit signed integers, I'd definitely test everything possible. Definitely try the Alpha and MIPS, too. Alpha's sort of known for handling these sorts of things.
I'd also ask on the linuxppc-devel mailing list. People that probably can help you are on that list. (http://lists.linuxppc.org/)
Re:Math intensive server stuff
(Score:5, Interesting)
by Smitty825
One other important thing to ask is the state of the GCC complier for the PowerPC Platform. IIRC, it isn't as efficient as the ones available for the x86 and Alpha platforms. How much would LinuxPPC benefit from an optimized compiler and what sort of performance could be expected from LinuxPPC compared to Linux86/Alpha/others?
Jason:
Franz Sirl, a Linux/PowerPC developer, has done a lot of work on optimizing GCC for PPC. Look at PPC vs. x86 benchmarks. Theoretically, PowerPC kicks x86's butt, but if things aren't optimized for it (as often happens in this x86 world), it may not seem like such a hot processor. With more optimization, performance should continue to improve. Again, I'd ask about this on the linuxppc-devel list.
Platform Issues
(Score:5, Interesting)
by IanCarlson
Is LinuxPPC a viable alternative to x86 Linux? Can I run my department on a LinuxPPC-based server with the same peace-of-mind that I get on an i386-based box running Linux? Will I still enjoy the almost surrealistic uptimes I get with my current Linux server? Does the LinuxPPC code still suffer from chronic flakey-ness?
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.
Jason:
That's a good place to be. Of course it's an alternative. For some of us, it's reality. ;-) You can run on a PPC box as well as an x86 box. I know of many places that are using PPC boxes for everything from basic stuff like web servers to netatalk servers to controlling puppets. (Jim Henson's Creature Shop!) There are a lot of real world examples of Linux/PowerPC in action. We have a few in our office. Most of our servers have the same legendary uptimes that Linux is known for. Servers outside our office have them. Other people's servers have them. It's everywhere. ;-)
The PowerPC 604 is an incredibly stable processor for Linux use, and the 750 (Apple's G3) is very solid. The 7500 (G4) is getting there fast.
I'm not sure what you mean by "chronic [code] flakey-ness". Code not optimized for PPC? Yes, though not as much now. Unstable code? Yes, but that seems universal. A lot of times, it can be traced to simple things like bad RAM. Try replacing the RAM if your machine is acting quirky. It could make a big difference! (He says to an audience in which 512 MB of RAM may not be uncommon....)
ATX motherboard availability?
(Score:4, Interesting)
by glrotate
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?
Jason:
Oh, that would rock if those came into reality. I do know about it but I can't comment about it beyond saying that I hope it actually happens.
What I can say: it needs to happen.
merge with RedHat?
(Score:5, Interesting)
by A moron
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?
Jason:
Yes, and I can't comment about that. In September of 2000, we committed to customer service, as things really were bad. But then, a major hunk of the company was unable to think straight, or remember what he was just about to say. (That "hunk of the company" == me!) The good news is that customer service is still a major priority, and I'm well enough that I can see to it that it stays that way, and make sure that people are helped.
Your Perception Before and After the Accident
(Score:5, Interesting)
by TheNecromancer
Jason,
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?
Jason:
First off, thank you. :-) I've been through hell, many times. People don't know what it's like to have a traumatic brain injury, or permanently lose vision in an eye. It's not fun. ;-)
Say, Cassie (my wife) is a major hero here. Thanks to everyone who wrote in and expressed support for her. Do it some more, she'd appreciate it. ;-D
They will be throwing the book at "Jerk Boy" (my name for the ...drunk.... who hit me). He faces three felony charges, including driving under the influence and driving with intent to cause harm. Considering that he had a 0.25 BAC (blood-alchohol content), I don't know how they could defend against it.
Yes, my injuries changed a lot of things, including how I see the computing industry. Part of me realizes how big a help it's been (and at the same time a bloody pain the ass!), and part of me wants to get out of it. To me, living well (being content with your situation, loved ones, etc.) is much more important than having the latest box, biggest monitor, or best domain name is. (It was that way before, too, but now it's even more so.)
Linux and Accessibility
(Score:5, Interesting)
by FourG
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?
Jason:
I didn't have any experience with that stuff, unfortunately. I think the State of Georgia's health department may have been able to help me with a bit of that, but I'm sure it all would have been for Windows or the Mac OS. (And useless to me.)
A moment of victory for me was about four months after I got hit; I was back at home, and still was able to use vi. I'm not sure what that says about the effects of a brain injury. ;-D
Altivec and MP G4's?
(Score:4, Interesting)
by esome
ok, newbie questions but:
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?
Jason:
AltiVec: Apps that use features that AltiVec can help will benefit. The OS itself probably won't get much benefit. AltiVec was designed to help things like video and audio, things that people in Apple's markets are interested in. Linux doesn't have much software that can benefit from that. I don't know how much an AltiVec-friendly kernel or version of Apache would improve things, if at all. As Linux gets more "desktop" and "multimedia" software, AltiVec support will probably become a more interesting topic for Linux.
Oh, you could probably jigger Enlightenment to use AltiVec.. oh my...
SMP support is still improving. Until recently, there wasn't much in the way of SMP hardware out there. Before Apple introduced the multiprocessor G4s, there simply wan't that much at all. There were a number of MP PPC 604 machines, but they're no longer in production, unless you find an obscure Motorola box.
With Apple (the major PPC player) making MP boxes, MP support will improve. With Apple making boxes that have AltiVec, support for that'll improve too. Assuming that they keep using AltiVec.
Why should my next purchase be a PowerPC?
(Score:5, Interesting)
by rjh
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.
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. :) Educate me.
Jason:
Very good question! You're right: unless you get an oddity of a system, you're buying a Mac to get a PPC box. The TiVo is a Linux/PPC box, but I don't think that it can run Apache. ;-) (then again, Paul Mackerras and company have added an Ethernet card... anyway...)
For what it's worth, USB on Linux is coming a long way (printers now work, for example), and FireWire's getting there.
The advantage of PPC over x86 is/was that at a lower clock speed, you got higher performance. But 1 GHz PCs are coming out left and right, and Apple's fastest is 500 MHz. For some things, they will be the same speed. But you can get a Celery (er, Celeron) box super-cheap, with a lot more stuff that you get with an iMac. It's becoming quite difficult to have a viable alternative when you can't get a super-cheap box.
PPCs are smaller, faster, and cooler (literally and figuratively) than x86 chips. The PPC 7400 doesn't need a CPU cooling fan. Get a Mac (I'd name some other cheap PPC boxes, but there aren't any!) and you'll get a super-cool case and the cool-looking one-button optical mouse.
Where's the real advantage, though? Again, good question. As the computer world changes, and no third party desktop PPC boxes appear, it's getter harder to answer. I think the real problem here is that there are no real third-party alternatives for PPC hardware. And that needs to change. Should IBM's POP board see the light of day, ask me again, and I'll have a different answer for ya. As I said above, it needs to happen.
=---
Why should my next purchase be a PowerPC? by rjh 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....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?
:-). However, I just don't see how (at this time) the benefits outweigh the costs of a PPC based system (or Alpha, or MIPS, except for servers). x86 processors are the cheapest and best supported (in terms of motherboards, etc). In addition, the peripherals of a Mac aren't nearly as abundant as those of your common PC.
Jason: Very good question!...PPCs are smaller, faster, and cooler (literally and figuratively) than x86 chips. The PPC 7400 doesn't need a CPU cooling fan. Get a Mac (I'd name some other cheap PPC boxes, but there aren't any!) and you'll get a super-cool case and the cool-looking one-button optical mouse. Where's the real advantage, though? Again, good question.
Though I've had limited experience with it, I like the RISC architecture because of it's tendancy to run cooler and that it's just a more efficient processor. I'd hardly say that a cool case and mouse consititute a valid reason to switch processor types
I can't see myself or anyone else justifying a purchase of a ~$3000US G4 cube with 2 500 Mhz processors compared with the ultra cheap Athlons and P3's (and 4's) now available. When Athlon motherboards support multi-processors (last I heard the chipsets were in the works, out very soon), the ability to have two, say, 800 Mhz Athlon processors just blows away the processor costs of MIPS, Alpha, and PPC, because each of those 800 Mhz Athlon processors are only a little over $100!.
What would be more interesting is to find accurate answers to the first person (Math intensive server stuff by drenehtsral) as to how the PPC does raw calculations compared to x86s of similar price, and not Mhz. There might be an advantage there.
In short, it's too bad Apple killed the clones, or we'd have cheaper PPCs to play with.
"The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." --Carl Sagan
Congratulations... i think i'm less intelligent for even reading your post... i guess i'm not suprised you're an Anonymous Coward
My mother is a fish.
Jerk Boy is/was a college student at Princeton. I don't know what he was doing in Savannah that day.
And he is caucasian/white.
Haaz: Co-founder, LinuxPPC Inc., making Linux for PowerPC since 1996.
-- haaz.
Siberia? That's too good for them! They should be kept in a special facility at the Amundsen Scott South Pole Station and be forced to clean the runway with their tounges, every day!!! :-)
Heya,
:)
;-)
I'm still healing. But thanks.
When someone asks how I'm doing, I say, "much better, thank you!"
Haaz: Co-founder, LinuxPPC Inc., making Linux for PowerPC since 1996.
-- haaz.
Well, the obvious. That vi is already a brain damage, so it can't really be affected by other damages of the same nature... ;-)
VasilisVasilis Vasaitis
Late readers: please moderate at Newest First, with a low threshold, to promote late writers.
the only problems with simple solutions are simple ones. unfortunately, drunk driving is far from this. as long as people believe it wont happen to them, and have (at the time misplaced) confidence in themselves, its not going away anytime soon.
Something just doesn't sit right with me when you have to have a small MAC partition to install Linux. This just isn't true. Don't use BootX, use Quik. BootX is easier to use, but requires MacOS. Quik is more like lilo (although it's based on the Solaris boot loader (silo?)). The RedHat based PPC Linux distros are "optimized" for installing/booting from MacOS. Debian is the best PPC Linux distro I've used.
--"In dreams begin responsibilities" - Delmore Schwartz
ok, let me get this straight: an interview with one of the leading developers of LinuxPPC and not one question that pertained to MacOS X!? did no MacOS X question get asked, or did he just ignore them?
i'd like to know, because i've tried both, and after getting used to MacOS X, i really can't see any reason to run LinuxPPC as a desktop machine. (i may pick up an old mac to run as my firewall, however. my old PC just blew up, literally; smoke and all).
but servers aside, can anybody give me any one good reason why i should use LinuxPPC over MacOS X? because i can't think of one. on my machine (B&W G3) MacOS X has been more stable, it runs my old Mac programs, it's up-to-date and compatible with all Macs, excellent SMP (i'll get a dual processor box next), and to top it all off it's got a more consistant and cleaner interface (no linux GUI i've tried has come close, and i've learned Aqua is very "tweakable").
so apart from my little firewall (that would really best be searved with FreeBSD on an x86 box), remind me again why i would have any good reason to run LinuxPPC? and "because it's GPL" doesn't count as a good reason for me, especially after Apple has "refined" the APSL.
- j
If you are designing an embedded system (TiVo, VoIP router, cell phone base station, industrial control or ispection, autonomous robot) then the power advantages of the PPC and on-chip peripheral sets offered by Motorolla make x86s not even show up on the radar.
Now that is interesting. I keep forgetting that there's more to life than the desktop. I guess I should try find out what percentage of Moto's business dollars is in the embedded world...
exactly - a year and a half of loss. just what i was saying ;) thanks!
Based on my understanding of the AltiVec unit, I think there are a few kernel level options that AltiVec may be useful for.
The most obvious is optimizations to the firewalling and routing code within the kernel. The AltiVec unit has a "permute" function that allows you to generate a 128 bit vector by picking and choosing words from two other 128 bit vectors. Aparently, Motorola has built a software router around a 7400 capable of doing software routing on multiple T3s. In this situation, the AltiVec unit simply becomes a glorified switching fabric.
The second optimization that I can see would be in kernel level encryption, for doing things like IPSec and/or encrypted filesystems. If I remember correctly, this use was sugested in one of the documents available on Motorola's web site.
Esentially, if you stop thinking of the AltiVec unit as a media processor, and think it more of a parallel processing unit, you can use it for a lot of different tasks.
...si hoc legere nimium eruditionis habes...
And I say that at the risk of being redundant - not only did he survive a few months without even looking a linux terminal, only Windows and Mac OS but he still remembered how to work vi! Weaker men would have buckled under similar circumstances and used notepad (or Mac OS' equivalent)!
But seriously, you gotta admire someone like Jason, not only did he pull through but he managed to keep his spirits up during the whole time and laugh (at least in ASCII) about it.
--
All browsers' default homepage should read: Don't Panic...
All browsers' default homepage should read: Don't Panic...
there was a typo in line 3, i think you meant sun hardware, running solaris.
you're welcome.
It's true, slow drivers are a problem. I don't know about other places really, but here in South Africa we have one of the highest car accident rates in the world. I was in Germany in Munich recently, and I was quite stunned by how *sensibly* most people there drive. I think the problem in South Africa is that the roads are a very heterogenous environment - there are many many people on the road that drive really slowly (70 - 100 km/h on the highway, 40-60 km/h in urban areas) and there are also just as many who like to driver really fast (e.g. 180-200 km/h on the highway.) So on the highway you'll have a bunch of really slow people, a whole lot of "average" people, and a bunch of really fast people dodging everybody else. Also the quality of cars varies a lot. In Germany, it seemed to me that not only was the quality of cars a lot more homogenous, but also the people had a much smaller range of speeds that they travelled. None of the really slow drivers or the really fast drivers - most people just stayed between 110 and 140 km/h.
As you say, slow people are a big danger, even to people who are staying under the speed limit. South Africans drive like crap. There is also a lot of road rage and general aggression on the roads here, people often cut you off, pull in front of you, etc.
Too bad IBM's focus for the PPC is high end servers (very high end servers...), and Moto's focus has been the embedded market, leaving Apple and its customers to suffer.
Hopefully the new faster CPUs will help remedy this situation.
Scuttlemonkey is a troll
I live in London. I get a train to work every morning. It *sucks*. You can't eat, sleep or be drunk, because there's _barely_ enough space to stand (read a book if you're lucky). You have to wait out in the cold on the platform (this might not be a problem in some parts of US, but it's a problem here). Trains are often delayed or canceled, they are also vunerable to weather.
Now, part of these problems are to do with the fact that it's London, and the train organisation/managment/funding is so screwed up. Also, we have a very high population density here, which doesn't help.
If someone did this in the US it *might* be cool, but it would very much depend on who owned it and how smart they were.
All I'm saying is that while road travel in the US might be pretty bad, train travel over here is not much better.... (if the recent track record - no pun intended - is anything to go by, they're not much safer either!)
One other thing to say: I used to get this boat to work in the morning. This is the way to travel. There's no stress, it's safe, not crowded, this wins all the time.
Why can't Apple keep up?
Blar.
1) Low cost
2) A 3U rack mount case
The first point can be questionable and debated, but the second one was a slam dunk for the x86 platform. I ended up with a Socket A ATX board running an AMD offering. Cost? Minus the case, the whole computer was around $450. I could build two of these things for the price of a single new iMac, and and two $280 rack cases for the price of a single G4 tower.
Now, if that cheap ($100 ballpark) PPC board were out there and the chips cost the same as the x86 stuff, we'd have a whole different story here.
--
this is my sig
power computing (the big clone company) was always in the red. power computings strategy was to sell at a loss in order to gain mindshare and marketshare. apple supposedly warned them in private not to do this and asked clone makers to expand the market (clone makers only advertised in mac magazines), then finally killed cloning
you can argue that apple should be a software company, but with the current size of the market im not sure they could support themselves. it is also hard to argue that apple produces uncompetitive hardware when new imacs start at $799 (w/monitor, firewire, good graphics, etc)
the mhz war has see-sawed before (when ppc was at 250 mhz the pentium was breaking 100 mhz) and i expect apple to match/exceed x86 by years end. why ppc? alternatives are good, and ppc is an efficient and powerful design. the ppc forte is math intensive and streaming media servers
the animal doesnt even have opposable thumbs, focker!
Considering that he had a 0.25 BAC (blood-alchohol content), I don't know how they could defend against it.
Simple. Draft in the presidential-race lawyers.
[No offence meant to Mr. Haas with this... obviously, I wish him all the best, and that Jerk Boy goes down for a good few years.]
That would be kind of silly; Power4's are huge, power consuming beasts. Apple would almost certainly have to make a new case to fit them in. And besides, it would cost like $10,000 USD. Maybe if Apple re-entered the high-end server market, it would become a reality.
If you need to do 64-bit integer calculations, the most important thing is to make sure you have a compiler that does them properly. IEEE-compliant FPUs have 64-bit integer capability, but not all compilers generate code to use it. This is a bigger factor than x86 vs. PPC.
Bad drivers are always responsible for the worst crashes.
There's an easy way of doing it... press shift + numlock to put numpad in a kind of "mouse emulation" then keypad_0 and keypad_comma work as mouse 2 & 3 don't remember exactly at which order. anyway I'm thinking of getting a 3-button mouse ... pity since the 1 button optic mouse is simply wonderful except for the missing buttons.
Nintendo's GameCube revolves around a 400 MHz PPC knockoff, correct? That means we'll have linux on it in no time at all! Whee!
I wonder how much IBM is making from the Nintendo deal, I believe they're the ones making the Gekko [sp?] processor...
--
Peace,
Lord Omlette
ICQ# 77863057
[o]_O
streaming media, compression, encryption, you get the picture (yes, x86 may be cheaper for text editing)
when using altivec, ppc has strong advantages over even the 1.4 ghz p4
and no, they dont cost >$3k (as stated elsewhere). g4s start at $1299 (new, w/gigabit ethernet)
the animal doesnt even have opposable thumbs, focker!
My computer has a drunk driver. It's my sound card driver. It sings to me sometimes, but i can't really understand it.
Where are my GPFs? I WANT MY GPFS!!
Motorola used to sell PPC motherboards.. With PCI and AGP and everything. Take a look: http://www.mcg.mot.com/cfm/templates/product.cfm?P ageID=875&ProductID=39&PageTypeID=1
I'm not sure if this is what I found before, but it's worth a look...
Though I'm not defending drunk drivers, I don't see how they can prove intent to cause harm.
.25 is so bad (and it is) they should just increase the DUI penalty in your state. I think that the additional charge is just a way to punish those without political connections.
If driving with a bac of
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
A "Mac" Truck?
My, Mr. Haas DOES lead a dangerous life!
;]
Angry IT woman in big clompy boots. And talking lint!.
Evan - needs to hit preview before submitting
Actually, we have seen it. It's called "AMD". They take the CISC instructions and translate them into RISC instructions that can be more highly optimized
All Intel processors from the Pentium Pro onwards have done this, too. You'll be hard-pressed to find an x86 clone that *doesn't* do this, as it makes a lot of the hardware design much easier.
One can dream...
The IPCC has purposely engineered a massive scientific fraud.
That's about as insightful as it gets.
I'm 26, and the alcohol I've consumed could fit into a couple big mouthfulls. This just reminds me why I don't want to touch the stuff.
-- Michael Chermside
Insead of PowerPC you can use AplhaLinux; but you should read first http://www.aceshardware.com/Spades/read.php?articl e_id=145
gcc has not been designed for the Alpha platform, while Compaq adapted his compiler from Tru64Unix to Linux.
You can get the this compiler and more from
http://www.support.compaq.com/alpha-tools/index.ht ml
Have you read P.J. O'Rourkes How to dirve fast on drugs while getting your wing wang squeezed?
It's from National Lampoon, back when both he and it were funny, and elucidates much the same feelings.
I prefer to drive high, though my bong tneds to block my view when I'm driving.
Have you looked at the back or Running Linux? I saw something in there. In any case on the only LinuxPPC box that I deal with on a regular basis it has a Logitech trackball that works very well.
Cypherpunks: Civil Liberty Through Complex Mathematics. Those who live by the sword die by the arrow.
Listen, get out and travel a bit. I'm from the South and parts of my family go back 300 years in French Louisiana. Now, while there is too much prejudice down there, it's worse here in NYC area where I now live. My experiences living in both parts of the country tell me that the South has by and large (with some extremist exceptions) learned to live integrated with European, Hispanic, African and other Americans much better than good ole Westchester Co., NY.
Aide: Grant drinks too much to command an army. Lincoln: Find out what he drinks and give it to my other generals!
Has anyone here compared the performance and/or functionality of these two distros? I just installed Yellow Dog 1.2.1 on a G3 laptop the other day, and was sorely disappointed... especially considering that it's based on the "Easy-to-Use" Redhat. A few issues I had w/ YDL:
* Would lock or power-down on me if I booted straight "linux"; could only sucessfully do things booting to "linux-novideo". This may be a somewhat known issue, but it keeps me from using > 256 colours.
* Gnome was crap on my machine. The task bar (gnome-session?) cored every time I tried to load up X. the mouse cursor would "float" as it approached max/min/etc buttons on the window.
* KDE was better, but only somewhat. If screen blanked, palette never shifted back to normal colours.
* Since there doesn't appear to be any real "text" mode, minicom had everything shoved into an 80x25 corner of my display, leaving 2 inches of blank black space to the bottom and right.
* Could not alt-Fx between terminals. Could alt-F7 to the blank one reserved for X -- but could not get back to any other terminals.
* Other little, nagging issues.
I haven't been able to easily find information on most of these issues, either. I guess what I'm trying to say is, when Jason tells us "You can run on a PPC box as well as an x86 box", I just certainly hope this is true, and that my YDL experiences won't be repeated with in Yet Another Linux Distro. Based on what I've seen, it didn't perform or function "as well as an x86 box", and it certainly won't be easy for joe user to find ways to fix these issues.
I'm an ardent linux user. I use it almost exclusively. However, unless LinuxPPC is any better, I'm gonna to take a look at OSX or *BSD.
The cloners had the advantage that Apple was carrying all the R&D work for them. Also with smaller orders to fill, they were able to get more consistent deliveries from Motorola.
Also the cloners were supposed to grow Apple's market in the consumer field. Instead, they just poached the high-end pro users, cutting into Apple's market share at a point where they could not have sustained the loss.
There was a time and may yet be a time for Apple to try to do buisness the way Microsoft does it. It wasn't then, and it isn't now.
A lot of people say that speed kills. True. It does. But lets also consider another factor that kills, other than drinking. Slow drivers. You may not think about it but really... You are going down the road at around 55-58 in a 55 zone. There is some idiot in front of you going 35-40, and there is only one lane, and you can't pass him without having a head-on with another car. People get real aggitated at this. I guess you could call it 'natural road-rage'. You get pissed, you try to pass him, BOOM, a Mac Truck takes you through its radiator.
Don't troll me. This is a serious matter. Ive almost had a wreck because of these damn road hogs. Its most annoying really. There should be a minumum speed, just as there is a maximum. I know this to be true in Florida in some places, and have seen it a few times where I live. Ca. Does anyone else have minimum speed limit signs?
M$ stock dropped in 1/2 since last year. If you are a MCSE, you will be broke.
That's CNets rumor. The AppleInsider rumor is the opposite. More people seem to believe AppleInsider, but we won't know until Tuesday, when Steve hold his show.
There is one reason I prefer: your not giving money to Microsoft! But, aside from this the prosessor is a lot more effentient (more than 2x average) of corse that can vary a lot depending on what you are doing... (so a 500mhz mac still compeats, not to mention in a laptop!) Given the individual hardware is more expensive, sometimes a lot. I'm not a Mac user but I soon hope to get a g4 for linux... Mmmmmm.....
Hi all,
;-)
;-)
;-)
Just wanted to say "thanks!". So, thanks!
If you have a question for me, just ask! The only thing that I don't like about answering questions is typing a lot if they require long answers.
I'll be responding to some of the comments here, too. Thanks again! We may not always see the brightest stones in the mine on here, but the ones that we do find are treasures.
Last time: thanks again!
Oh, if you've mailed me, I have about 70 other mails to reply to, so I'll be a bit slow. And I'm going to Macworld Expo on Sunday, so I'll be tied up with that. Please understand if I don't immediately reply. Thanks! (Again^6!
Haaz: Co-founder, LinuxPPC Inc., making Linux for PowerPC since 1996.
-- haaz.
Sorry, 7200. I think LinuxPPC will boot on older NuBus Macs now, though.
Well, geez... Where's the fun in that? ;) Seriously, although I recognize that this attitude doesn't work well in a business situation where you need the machine to run no questions asked, but "fiddle fiddle experiment curse try again read up try again" is part of the reason I like Linux. Linux sows the seeds of relative self sufficiency in its users which may be part of the reason why the PPC share of the linux market is probably comparable to Apple's share of the desktop market. Apple's typical user isn't as technically savey as a typical windows (ie X86) user. IMO, a typical Apple user would find the learning curve for linux MUCH steeper than a windows/x86 user. Which is a shame, because linux offers a user so much more than either windows or apple ever will.
Chris
That's just my opinion. Take it for what it's worth.
Haaz: Co-founder, LinuxPPC Inc., making Linux for PowerPC since 1996.
-- haaz.
He's from north of the Potomac and/or Ohio Rivers, clearly.....
Aide: Grant drinks too much to command an army. Lincoln: Find out what he drinks and give it to my other generals!
well, according to my research, the given reason why Apple pulled in the clones was because the company was consistenly operating in the red, and clones like the Radius were blamed for the serious decline of consumer purchases of Apple products. i'm not sure if that's strictly true or not, but after they pulled back the clones, the *next quarter* they posted their first fiscal gain in a year and a half.
whatever the reason for doing it, it had the desired result.
"It needs to happen." Does anyone know the details for why the POP boards never materialized? What ever happened to Silicon Fruit, Eternal Computing, Total Impact, etc? Is the lack of production a result of perceived lack of market, or a missing part from Motorola, or what?
FWIW, some of the ex Phase 5 (a former Amiga addon manufacturer) guys, in the hope of having a good platform to run their MorphOS Amiga-like OS on, have started a company to produce some PPC motherboards. Ralph Schmidt has stated that the hardware will be "mostly generic" and running LinuxPPC on it should be possible. Whether that means it will be compliant with the PREP/CHRP/POP/whatever standards is still not clear to me. And of course any time products even tangentially related to the Amiga are mentioned, peoples' Vapor Warning lights go off. Nevertheless, it's at least a ray of hope for people who are interested in such things, so I thought I would mention it here.
---
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
It looks cool, but it's crap if you ask me.
If you ever use one, try selecting some files as if you were going to drag and drop them, then lift the mouse off the surface of your desk/mouse pad. If you're not holding onto the little 'tabs' (for want of a better word) at each side of the mouse, you will drop the files.
This has caused me endless grief when dragging and dropping files, as they dissappear inside some directory or another when they're accidentally dropped.
Again with Apple, design seems to take precedence over practicality.
Before we get all the boring 'one button mouse jokes' again, remember that Macs do have USB these days so there are plenty of alternatives - e.g.
----------------------------
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Moderator's essentials
Here is an article about a PPC motherboard product called RioRed.
The company is called SiliconFruit, and this board seems like vapor. However, it is still a very interesting read about their ambitions.
EverCode
You get used to it fast. When OS 8 out and introduced the Contextual Menu in 97, I picked it up quick, mouse with the right and pinkie finger to the Control key with the left . Then I went out a few monthes later and got my Kensington Orbit.
Now I have an MS Intellithingy Explorer. Really nice mouse on a Mac. Oh and I still have my Kensington Orbit for playing Q3 and UT, because I just can't get used to a mouse in those two games.
What it comes down to, is that VHS and Betamax were both good enough for the consumers. VHS had more software. Thus, VHS won.
I think this is what happened to the RISC processors too. CISC had the lead, and the advantages of RISC were not great enough to warrant a change, at least not at that time. I cannot help but wonder what the performance of a RISC box would be if they had invested the same amount of $$$ in that technology as they have in the CISC technology. I guess we'll never see.
Stop the brainwash
Essentially, you have to either:
1) set some kernel arguments at boot time (e.g., adb_buttons=1,x,y where x and y = the keycodes for the keyboard buttons that will emulate the second and third mouse buttons respectively.
or
2) create a init script that runs at boot time that sets the values of files in /proc/sys/dev/mac_hid/ (see Franzo's blurb)
I have gotten both methods to work, but use the second one on my PowerBook
Listen, get out and travel a bit. I'm from the South and parts of my family go back 300 years in French Louisiana. Now, while there is too much prejudice down there, it's worse here in NYC area where I now live. My experiences living in both parts of the country tell me that the South has by and large (with some extremist exceptions) learned to live integrated with European, Hispanic, African and other Americans much better than good ole Westchester Co., NY.
no kidding. i was born and raised in rochester, ny, and live in buffalo now. i've spent months wandering all over this fine country. and the biggest rednecks of them all are all _north_ of the mason-dixon line.
a friend of mine moved up here from south carolina, and it just floored him.
--saint----
If you're not holding onto the little 'tabs' (for want of a better word) at each side of the mouse, you will drop the files.
::Searches for a good way to say this::
::fails::
Well, that's why those bleeding 'tabs" are there!!
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
----------------
I am Moldy.
I think Linuxppc is a great way to salvage that old mac. There are lots of old macs around that aren't very useful with MacOS, but become a very usable Linux box when LinuxPPC is installed.
I took an abandoned PPC 7100 which could barely run Netscape for just a few minutes without crashing, installed LinuxPPC and it became an ultra-reliable Linux box. I could use all my fave tools such as netscape, emacs, python, mutt, samba, and gcc. And it was fast enough for me, and worked as a decent X-terminal.
Clones were supposed to grow the MacOS's marketshare, and all they did was poach Apple sales.
Apple could've revised its licensing strategy to prevent clone boxes in direct competition with Apple products. Apple doesn't want to market a tower with six PCI slots and room for eight drives anymore? Let someone else do it. Likewise with subnotebooks, "monitorless iMac" pizza boxes, etc. No product overlap, no conflict, no lost sales for Apple.
Parent post by me. Somehow /. marked it AC. Timeout??
I seem to recall reading something that said either that apple had announced they were going to stop making MP boxes for an unspecified amount of time, or that "sources close to apple" had said that same thing. Anyone care to comment? If this is true, well, that's unfortunate.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Apple is one of the most consistently profitable computer companies. There were a couple of quarters of red ink after the NeXT buy-out, plus one recently.
Apple scrapped the clones because they directly affected sales of their hardware. I know, I used to own a clone! It was cheaper and more powerful than what Apple had at the time, so I bought it.
Clones were supposed to grow the MacOS's marketshare, and all they did was poach Apple sales. The thing that increased MacOS's market dramatically was the iMac.
Pope
Freedom is Slavery! Ignorance is Strength! Monopolies offer Choice!
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
the thing is that the PPC processors and boards are very different at a low level from x86 processors and boards (duh). the busses are different. A PC will bottleneck is a number of instances at the boards, and cranking the MHZ is only going to do so much., Thats why AS/400s and RS/6000 machines are so great for server applications: they are wider. the memory access (of any kind) on new as400s is incredible. and thats the real issue for server type applications (which seems to maybe be the future), processor speed is important for a number of things, (multimedia) but IO is super important for server applicatiosn, databases etc. So the PPC has quite a future, just maybe not on your desktop, and thats also why linux is so important on the PPC, is because it is great for servers: IBM is planning on releasing it (for example) on the 400 which, pricewise is a fantastic deal. at any rate, the PPC I think has a realatively long life ahead of it. Especially when we move into 64 bit processing. the 64 bit PPCs are great and supposedly the backward compatibility is good. -zeke
Uh, really, why do you folks keep bringing up the damn CUBE when making hardware/price comparisons? It's an executive toy and should be ignored at all costs. Get the MP towers instead.
As for the G4 chips (or 7400/7500 family) the next batch will have DUAL AltiVec units! Now there's some tasty FP waiting to happen.
Pope
Freedom is Slavery! Ignorance is Strength! Monopolies offer Choice!
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
IBM may have had SOI and copper interconnects first, but Intel has them now (And AMD has had them for a while), and has the added benefit of being in heavy competition with AMD. This recent competition has sparked a clock speed race that IBM has not had to partake in, and it has left both Intel and AMD on top of the manufacturing world. Both companies are selling 1Ghz+ .18 micron CPUs which are very competitive speed wise to most high end solutions, and catching up pretty fast. Sure, an Athlon is no Alpha, but for under $500 you will soon be able to buy two 1.1Ghz Athlons and a dual motherboard that are faster then any Alpha, and a lot cheaper too.
Only those who dream can grasp reality.
Altivec may be cool stuff; StrongARM and MIPS have their own bits of "coolness," but all are suffering from the "no cheap motherboards" problem. In order to deploy these for substantial applications, you need either to:
- Commit to paying for a whole pile of hardware, which means you need to have deep pockets and have Vulture Capitalists willing to trust Motorola and Apple (apparently the case for TiVo), or
- Run the risk that the hardware will be obsolete, with no upgrade path.
I'd love to see the POP motherboards come out; I'd love to see the F-CPU project get to generating actual silicon, and if they actually produced a board and CPU, I'd almost certainly buy one of those even if it was just a fraction as fast as the latest "Pentium 4." Unfortunately, considerable skepticism is necessary.Which is why Cobalt's newer hardware was using IA-32 rather than MIPS, and why "Rebel Computing" isn't doing too well.
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
There's one excellent reason for choosing a Mac over Windows or Linux/x86: better ease of use. Using a Mac is easier than using a PC. (And yes, during the day I spend all my time working on NT, so I know whereof I speak.) The relatively small price delta between a Mac and a comparable PC is worth the the time and grief I am saved when working on my Mac.
Linux/PPC takes away that advantage, which is why I've never bothered to install it.
-jon
Remember Amalek.
All the new towers have twin G4 processors.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
I can only hope that if I get hit as badly as Jason, that I recover as completely. It really is nice to be witness to something that extraordinary.
Evan - needs to hit preview before submitting
The x86 ISA is older than I am...and I'm not a kid niether. Intel's most recent high volume CPU core was released in 1994 (pro) and has been the basis for what their doing for a long time. The p4 is slower than the p3. Until I see it in stores, Itanium is vapor.
My G4 is a bit more with the times, as far as computing technology than most implementations of the x86 ISA. Athon's a viable alternative, but remeber, they licensed thier copper fabrication process from....Motorola.
Als0 als0 wik:
IBM's got some nifty stuff coming down the pipe (SOI, POWER 4) that really should blow the doors of most x86 implementations.
"Let him go, Ralph. He knows what he's doing." --Otto Mann (simpsons)
Yes, but compare specs. You're talking Quad PIII Xeon running at 800 Mhz. Mot did their demo with a single 350 Mhz 7400. I'd like to see you try and stick 4 800 Mhz PIII Xeons in a box no bigger then a hard cover Tom Clancy book, without a fan. (which you could do with a single G4).
...si hoc legere nimium eruditionis habes...
Is really cool looking, and I have gotten it to work on an iMacDV running LinuxPPC, but how do I get the other clicks to work?
Maybe I just passed up something really simple, but I cannot figure out how to get the 3-Button Emulation to work at all, with modifier keys or anything!
Anyone?
If you are talking about a desktop machine, then as Jason points out it's hard to find a compelling reason (except the lack of a noisy cooling fan!). If you are designing an embedded system (TiVo, VoIP router, cell phone base station, industrial control or ispection, autonomous robot) then the power advantages of the PPC and on-chip peripheral sets offered by Motorolla make x86s not even show up on the radar. I see Linux PPC as competition to VxWorks and Embedded NT, not desktop Windows or Linux x86.
Why does everyone conveniently ignore the RS/6000? They are to a degree chrp compliant, and come in SMP versions that scale to 24 processors.
The B50 even mentions PPC Linux as a supported OS.
Is PPC Linux going to be the OS choice for the cheesey people?
AIX 5L was designed to eat the large end of the Linux systems lunch. Hopefully PPC advocates won't end up with nothing left to hack on but the modern IIgs equivalent.
heh lol now I get it.
Heh been so long since I had a computer that crashed for much less than an actual hardware problem, that I had forgotten about that.
-Steve
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
This is just not correct. There are (or at least were) Mac clones, and I'm sure they were PPC based.
Aside from that though, IBM RS6000 machines (and AS400's, right?) have been using PPC chips for many many years. They've used 601, 604 and I think they're using 620s now. All those big iron IBM AIX boxes? They're all using PPC chips...at least until the power-4 is rolling out the doors.
So, no. I have two PPC boxes in my house, and neither is an Apple. They're not exactly ordinary boxes (they're rs6ks) but they are certainly PPC, and certainly available in the real world. I would love to run either Linux or NetBSD on my older rs6k boxes...if the support was only there...(but I *DO LOVE* AIX!!!)
sedawkgrep
Is that a salami in my pants or am I just happy to be me?
Indeed, even Mac 'enthusiasts' are hard pressed to find good technical reasons for buying PowerPC. Had Moto been at 900MHz by now, then, well, maybe.
But people don't necessairally start asking "What chip?". They average masses just ask "Which PC?". But they could also start asking "Which OS?" -- and this reveals one of the great potential* benefits of Linux -- that you can choose Linux first, and worry about your hardware second (as opposed to, say, the Mac, where choosing Mac OS X 'limits' you to Apple HW). And this is highly exciting for the IT industry, not to mention 'World Domination'...
For while Windows went 'everywhere' horizonatally (across all** desktops), Linux is busy going everywhere vertically (to most scales, CPUs etc.). -- So while MS has been successful keeping horizontal competition out, they are about to get vertically out-flanked.
When Linux is running on the company server, and on your PDA, the only bottleneck will be that 'troublesome' desktop running 'incompatible' Windows ;-)
Note the problem won't be what chip is in your desktop. It won't be the styling of the plastics. It'll simply be a matter of installing the right OS. And most of the time, that'll be Linux.
Is there a "Fanaticism FAQ" ?
* Potential for the masses, but real and current for those who know...
** In so far as 90% == 100%.
Has anyone here compared the performance and/or functionality of these two distros? I just installed Yellow Dog 1.2.1 on a G3 laptop the other day, and was sorely disappointed...
/etc/inittab. Perhaps I did that myself and can't remember.
the weird thing is that my experience was the opposite. My burn of LinuxPPC2000 wouldn't install on my iMac. The RPMS were in the *wrong directory* in the CD, and I couldn't use the graphical installation because at the time my iMac (classic) had only 32 MB of ram and the installation obviously doesn't init any swap.
After copying the CD's contents to another machine that's networked with the iMac I actually setup an FTP install and that also didn't work because some packages had different names than the packages the install program searched for. I ended up renaming about 30-40 packages until I realised about 40% of the RPMs had wrong names. By this time I gave up on the install and installed YellowDog. I now use lots of packages from LinuxPPC, but to this day I haven't figured out what's wrong with that CD. This coming from an experienced Linux user.
Anywho, to your questions:
* Would lock or power-down on me if I booted straight "linux"; could only sucessfully do things booting to "linux-novideo". This may be a somewhat known issue, but it keeps me from using 256 colours.
I also had several problems in the yaboot install process. This was the first time I did a LinuxPPC install so I had to learn some stuff the hard way. The OpenFirmware setup went along fine, but some bugs like the
image = hd:,\\\\vmlinux
line in yaboot.conf (now documented in their support site; there was a typo in the official version) gave me some headaches =)
In any case, read the yaboot docs and you should be running in at most half an hour because you'll already know about the yaboot.conf bug.
* Gnome was crap on my machine. The task bar (gnome-session?) cored every time I tried to load up X. the mouse cursor would "float" as it approached max/min/etc buttons on the window.
I also had some issues with Gnome, but not as bad. Either recompile it or use KDE. I personally use Window Maker for the speed and memory usage so I didn't have the problem.
* KDE was better, but only somewhat. If screen blanked, palette never shifted back to normal colours.
Weird, KDE ran fine with me.
* Since there doesn't appear to be any real "text" mode, minicom had everything shoved into an 80x25 corner of my display, leaving 2 inches of blank black space to the bottom and right.
recompile the kernel with larger fonts.
* Could not alt-Fx between terminals. Could alt-F7 to the blank one reserved for X -- but could not get back to any other terminals.
it's actually command-Fx on the mac. If you did try command-Fx and it didn't work... well, you've got to enable the terms in
* Other little, nagging issues.
That's Linux for you. I always customize my installs, because anything I consider not to my liking is a nagging issue (like the lack of --color=yes in RedHat's 'ls' command).
I haven't been able to easily find information on most of these issues, either.
Google should simplify your life. Use lists.linuxppc.org as well.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, when Jason tells us "You can run on a PPC box as well as an x86 box", I just certainly hope this is true,
It is VERY true. My iMac now has 96 MB of RAM and it runs like a charm. I love using that box now (it's actually my Mom's -- she couldn't stand MacOS's sluggishness and crashes; I couldn't stand MacOS). It has _NEVER_ crashed on me, runs as fast as my 400 MHz Celeron, looks and feels just like Linux on an i386.
and it certainly won't be easy for joe user to find ways to fix these issues.
Agreed. Some of the stuff's well above joe user's head. In any case, I love LinuxPPC and I'd like to give a big thanks for Haas and all developers out there.
Flavio
"I can't see myself or anyone else justifying a purchase of a ~$3000US G4 cube with 2 500 Mhz processors compared with the ultra cheap Athlons and P3's (and 4's) now available."
:-)."
Another reason to not get that configuration may be that such beast doesn't exist. Not even close.
The G4 cube has 1 processor and costs $1499 (450), $2299 (500) or $2799 (500).
The dual tower models cost $1999 (450) or $2499 (500).
"I'd hardly say that a cool case and mouse consititute a valid reason to switch processor types
The cool thing with a cool (in the literal sense) case is that it can be made fanless. That's a big advantage if you sleep in the same room.
It wasn't too long ago that AMD had a majority or their chips made by IBM. (or was that cyrix? i don't remember)
-earl
I've wanted to play with linuxPPC for some time, but I'm balking at buying an actual macintosh ($$$). If anyone knows, I was wondering if it'd be possible to hack a tivo to the point that it can run linux effectively? (I know it runs linux now: I'm talking about using it as a regular box). I'm not all that familiar with the hardware, but apparently they're not built for expansion. I suppose the most important parts are the ethernet and a removable disk.
I've been following this closely since I first heard about the boards from a nice IBM fellow at the first or second LWCE in San Jose. At that time they were waiting for a chip company, I think Via, to finish the Northbridge chip for the board. I caught up with the same IBM fellow at LWCE in San Jose last August and discovered that the Northbridge chip had been cancelled by the company that was designing it and that, since they had no Northbridge chip, the ref. board was delayed. From what I know, IBM is now working on a Northbridge chip for the board themselves, and as soon as that is done, there should be cheap PPC boards galore. Keep tabs on openppc.org.
--
Gabriel Ricard
Linux Fanatic
Gabriel Ricard
Not true. You can still buy a 400Mhz G4 tower single processor here.
The IPCC has purposely engineered a massive scientific fraud.
the competition thing is a mixed blessing, on the one hand, Intel and AMD are devoting nearly all of their resources to getting the fastest x86 chip out the door, and it makes them lean and mean. On the other hand, it's a profitable market, but margins are razor thin for both parties. If you don't have the profits to do the R&D, and to build the fabs, it's hard to stay comptitive in that cut-throat market. IBM gets the benefit of having a diversified product strategy, and also because they use PowerPC in alot of their own systems (RS/6000, big iron) they get to sell PPC systems in two higher (than x86 desktop) margin markets: midrange and high-end servers. Plus they get service and support revenues from the product lines as well.
And as we all know, it takes a whole lot more than CPU power to make a powerful server. Ask Sun, they have one of the weakest processor offeings in the server market, but because they build balanced systems, having a weak CPU isn't hurting them. But that is beside the point.
Intel and AMD already own the desktop CPU market, and when they offer 64-bit CPUs, AMD will pull in a big share of the mid-range server market but they'll both expand into the the high-end server market as well.
It's very worth mentioning that Macs are not the only things that use the PowerPC processor, but they probably are the most well-known. Second place goes to TiVo -- it's a Linux/PPC box!
;-) However, most of these "other" devices are not anything resembling a traditional computer (ATX form factor logic board, etc.)
:)
There are many other things that have PPCs in them. Ford cars apparently do. (Anyone tried hooking up an Ethernet card to a Taurus?
BTW, if you thought YDL's installation was a bitch, check out LinuxPPC 2000 Q4. No Mac OS required.
Haaz: Co-founder, LinuxPPC Inc., making Linux for PowerPC since 1996.
-- haaz.
Get a Mac (I'd name some other cheap PPC boxes, but there aren't any!) Or you can get a new("uncirculated" or refurb) clone(mac clones were discontinued 2 yrs ago due to Steve Jobs pulling the plug on licensing). I have, for example, a umax c600 running linuxppc R5(or whatever the release is called now) just snazzily. One thing to consider is that you won't be able to get G3 or G4 without buying and additional upgrade card which is something I have yet to investigate. I'm not sure if there is a support issue with third party processors from NewerTechnologies or Sonnet.
In my "ideal world," we don't have massive, road-hogging, gas-guzzling SUVs (Expedition, Excursion, newer Exploders, Tahoe, Suburban, any GM models) clogging the roads (and hurting people). We would have a few less roads, and something that has been working really well in Europe for quite a while: passenger trains.
;-) Isn't that worth it?
I would _love it_ if I could take a train from Madison, Wisconsin (where I live now, thank goodness) to Chicago, or to Minneapolis. Or to San Francisco. Or NYC.
I can take a _bus_ to Chicago, then get on a train there (I think), but I'm not sure how I'd get from the bus station to the train station. (Taxi? Call one of my Chicago contacts?)
Trains can move more people at once than a car, obviously. They don't take up too much space. The space is made a rail _once_, and you shouldn't have to add much more if it's planned right. (Don't get me started on modern urban "planners"....)
We wouldn't have to stay focused all the time. We could eat, sleep, or be drunk, all of which people do in cars anyway.
The interest in passenger trains seems to be growing, which I'm glad of. I just wish that back in the 1950s, instead of GM doing their best to get rid of trains, trains multplied. I might not be the subject of a Slashdot interview. There are definitely people who would like that.
I'm done ranting now. Have fun.
Haaz: Co-founder, LinuxPPC Inc., making Linux for PowerPC since 1996.
-- haaz.
Drunks shouldn't be singled out. Any sort of voluntary negligence, where a person makes a choice that results in them not operating a vehicle as safely as possible, should receive equal treatment. Get drunk, talk on a cellphone, do your makeup in the rear-view mirror ... it's
all the same. They're all conscious choices to
risk other peoples' lives. America will become
a better place when the drunken driving laws
are repealed and the general case is
addressed instead.
I would like to say that one of the major reasons that PPC hardware is still around is BECAUSE Apple is the only one selling it. It just makes sense that if only one company is selling your type of motherboard, hardware compatibility issues are more easily solved. It either works in Apple's motherboard or it doesn't. It's not, it works in Asus's Slot 1 motherboard, but not in Abit's. If you get a G3, yours is the same as everyone else's. If some sound card or video card doesn't work for you but it worked for everyone else, you get to send that G3 back to apple to get one that works right. Or even learn from the experiences of others with the same hardware. A lot of people don't want to take the trouble of updating this driver for this motherboard, flashing the BIOS, etc.
Having said all of this, I still do prefer x86 chips for Linux. The Yellow Dog install was a (pardon the pun) bitch. Something just doesn't sit right with me when you have to have a small MAC partition to install Linux.
Check out Althea for a stable IMAP email client for X. Now with SSL!
It's a shame really. I'd love an ATX form factor non MAC PPC motherboard.
The mailing list archives:
http://raj.phys.sfu.ca/mailarchive/ppc-mobo/
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