Slashdot Mirror
Yellow Dog Linux 2.1 Shipping
Durindana indicates this announcement of the newest version of Yellow Dog Linux, writing: "PowerPC fans, this is a big deal. YDL's certainly improved over its former state lately; hopefully 2.1 continues that trend. Does this make it the "best of class" (Mandrake's favorite term) for PPC?" There are at least four strong Linux-on-Mac contenders now, which is nice to see.
The term 'PPC' includes G3 and G4 machines, not just the original PPC architecture. So yes, there are a lot of PPC machines out there.
I am the hub of Jack's digital lifestyle.
I really don't recommend Linux on the new Power Macs (B&W G3's and newer). The times I've tried to install LinuxPPC and YDL on these Macs, I nearly hosed the machine when I had to mess with the firmware.
I'm running OS X 10.1 on my beige G3, and I haven't had any trouble with it. Sure, I had to buy more RAM, but hey, I paid only $25 for a 256MB DIMM.
There's only one drawback to using OS X on the beige G3's: no serial support. Fortunately, I needed another printer anyway.
JA
http://www.johnalex.org/
In general terms, it like comparing Debian/x86 to RedHat. YellowDog is still somewhat RedHat'ish last I knew.
But more importantly, Debian/PPC is doing great. I can't think of any glaring PPC-specific bugs in either Woody or Sid right now.
I run Mandrake 8 on my Powerbook (G3 Wallstreet second edition), and I'm quite impressed with it. There are *very* few differences between it and the x86 edition. I used to run LinuxPPC on it, but it seemed to be a very halfassed recompiled version of RedHat. How does Yellowdog compare? Also, does anybody know the state of the FreeBSD port? I'd really like to run it on there, since it's my favorite x86 OS...
using ybin/yaboot you can easily multi MacOS 8.x, MacOS 9.x, MacOS X and Linux. Even multiple installs of each OS. Check out http://www.alaska.net/~erbenson/ybin/ for more info.
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
One thing that OS X has going for it is that lots of the gnu tools are available and very easy to install via the fink mechanism and the other nice installers available. There is a good central clearing place of various tools, including XFree86, various window managers, and lots of good things at osxgnu.org which is worth checking out. For a while, XFree was broken in 10.1 but there is a patch there that works great. It seems like with so much available for OS X, it is harder to justify using LinuxPPC or the other linux distros for Apple machines.
It's psychosomatic. You need a lobotomy. I'll get a saw.
Has to have open firmware; so no ydl or linuxppc for your 5300. mklinux works for some older macs but I don't think the 5300 is one of them.
check here for an easy to follow tutorial to get xfree86, gtk+, gimp, etc set up and running on OSX. It gives a link to download a binary for xfree86, install instructions, and tells you how to use fink to install just about anything else you could want. enjoy
Time for some tasty Shiner Bock!
It will be available in two weeks. You have to understand. PPC is a reallly tiny market. The only way we stay in business is by selling CDs. So, while we don't really want to delay the ISOs.. it is necessary for our continued survival (especially given the economy right now).
Regards,
Dan
co-founder
Terra Soft Solutions
Whoops.. that is infact me posting above. :-)
Sorry about the AC
-Dan
Now that the new iBooks are out, the "old" ones (ie, pre-monday) are being cleared out. 1,200$US for the low end or 1,500$US for the one with the DVD/CD-RW drive.
check Small Dog Electronics [smalldog.com] or MacWarehouse.
Setting up a dual (or triple, quad, etc) boot is very possible, and is usually set up for you during the initial install of your distro of choice.
Generally speaking, most of the distros use a utility called yaboot, which in turn uses a utility called ybin to set up a bootstrap partition containing a Forth script which is 'blessed' to make the Mac firmware think its a System Folder. The Forth script is loaded initially, and presents you with a dialog asking which OS you with to boot; if Linux is chosen, yaboot is called and allows you to choose which kernel to boot from and what partition to use as / . If MacOS is chosen, the Forth script passes the location of the relevant System Folder to the firmware, and off you go with the little happy Mac icon. Of course, there are various caveats/pitfalls which I don't have time to go into, but this link provides lots of further info on the subject:
http://penguinppc.org/projects/yaboot/
I've currently got Mandrake 8, MacOS 9.2.1, and OS X running using this method on a rev.b iMac, and it works beautifully.
"I'd give my right arm to be in Def Leppard."
-- Andy Partridge
You don't need YaBoot to do that anymore. On any New World Mac (i.e. any Mac made after the first iMac), all you have to do is hold down the Option key during boot. This will bring up an OF based OS menu that will include all bootable volumes available.
Except they run better under Classic than MOL because Apple spent a lot of time optimizing. Further, Classic apps share the desktop with other apps. You don't need to house the MacOS desktop inside a giant X window.
Maybe so, I wouldn't know. But in general, OS X supports a lot more Apple hardware than Linux. For example, XFree86 4.1 is still unaccelerated for a lot of video cards in Apple systems, Firewire device support in Linux is flaky, and sound doesn't work under Linux in many systems (particularly laptops).
BS. I've got an iBook with YDL 2.0 and it doesn't even support suspend/sleep mode, nor does it dim the display. It can spin down the disk and blank the display, but that's it.
BS again. I just watched a DVD on my TV this past weekend driven by the AV connector on my iBook, in OS 10.1. Further, I'd like to know what version of Linux for PPC supports video out on my iBook. YDL 2.0 and Mandrake 8 certainly do not, and even if they did I've yet to see a full featured player on Linux.
I'll have to concede this one. I would love to run OS X with a modern filesystem. However, OS X users are pretty much stuck with HFS+ for now because Classic apps depend on the resource forks in HFS/HFS+.
Like what? Are you going to provide any examples, or are you just making stuff up?
I doubt it. OS X networking is basically straight from FreeBSD, which generally suffers from a lot fewer vulnerabilities than Linux.
Not much huh?
1. How about the ability to run:
-- Pretty much all the same UNIX/X11 software Linux can run
-- The vast majority of Windows software thanks to VirtualPC (unlike Wine, it can actually run real Windows apps)
-- Legacy MacOS apps
-- OS X native apps (Most importantly, all those commercial offerings you'll never see on Linux).
2. How about easy installation?
3. How about an attractive & easy to use GUI with a consistent L&F across all native apps?
4. How about video editing capability that Linux can't touch
5. How about timely support for future hardware you're likely to buy?
6. How about development tools & frameworks (Interface Builder & Cocoa) that Linux developers would die for.
How old does a Mac have to be before it can't run YDL or LinuxPPC?
Since NuBus-LinuxPPC boots 6/7/8100's, theoretically, a Mac would have to be so old as to have a 68K instead of a PowerPC processor before it can't run some version of LinuxPPC.
The PowerBook 5300 is listed among the "known to work."I assumed the writer was referring to Yellow Dog, SuSE, Mandrake, and Debian. Adding LinuxPPC and MkLinux brings the tally up to six, and Linux-m68k makes seven. Linux on the Mac is flourishing.
It seems to me that most Linux users on normal PC's like to have a dual boot system so that when the dreaded instance comes up that you HAVE to run Windows, you can reboot and do what you have to do. Does anybody know if it's possible to setup a dual boot on a PPC? (Linux and MAC OS) If so, any reccomendations?
This is where linux on a mac really shines.
Assuming you like being in linux all the time, it is possible to run MacOS 9.x in a window in linux... see http://maconlinux.org for details. You get to still have ethernet, sound, the whole bit.
That won't run MacOS X.x, but it is kinda there.
The other option is just to reboot, yaboot is a great boot loader (simmilar feature set to grub in the x86 world). It will let you boot MacOS 9.x and 10.x, to cd, and also to the openfirmware.
I have an x86 desktop, and one of the new TiBooks. The desktop and the laptop preform just about the same (I can't tell the differance), but I like working on the laptop so much more, even if I am at my desk. The PPC arch is much nicer to work with. (please note before flaming: the above paragraph is my opinion, and opinions can't be wrong)
Happy computing!
I wasn't lost... I was only momentaraly confused of my spacial orientation relative to my prime destination.
I'm sorry, but yellow dog never was worth it.
Its just a repackaged linuxPPC that has become VERY source un-friendly. Any release on any platform that isn't compleetly source friendly is just a waste. Now what I'm really waiting for is a Slackware PPC distro...
You are only young once, but you can stay immature indefinitely.