Two Shots In The Arm For PPC Linux

pinqkandi writes: "SuSE Linux 7.3 PowerPC Edition has now gone into distribution. New for this version are more USB drivers, and improved memory management, among other things. It is now based on Kernel 2.4.12 and glibc 2.2.4. For $79.95 you get it and 2000+ apps on 8 CDs, 550 pages of documentation, and 60 days of tech support." Read on for another nice turn for PPC users with an itch for Free software.

If updated PPC distributions interest you, this might too: DocTomoe writes: "The staff at iMacLinux have put together one of the largest PowerPC specific Linux resources. The new site called TuxPPC covers all PowerPC hardware. The site is aimed at not just people with Macs who want to try Linux, but at Linux users who might be interested in getting into the PowerPC platform."guides and web forums, too.

So when will Mandrake release 8.1 for PPC?

Comments

good documentation

[zonker]

hey, i'm always up for software that comes with a nice thick book filled with good documentation... that often can make the sale for me, not a stack of cdroms... =)

Re:Other Distros

[alexandre]

Debian is available, i m running it right now on a TiBook and i must say i'm impressed.

All the hardware is supported, and i mean all!

USB mouse with wheel...
sound hardware..
DRI support..
(well cant try firewire but ... )

Mandrake PPC

[_hAZE_]

Mandrake is currently working on updating their PPC tree. I believe they are going to skip an 8.1 release and focus on an 8.2 release that will (hopefully) coincide with their i586 8.2 release. Testing is open to the public (like all Mandrake releases), you can download the tree from most Mandrake development FTP mirrors. They also have a mailing list that you can subscribe to for those interested in running the PPC port. Check out http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/fdevlists.php3 for the mailing list and http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/cookerdevel.php3 for information on downloading the development tree.

Partition Magic vs. DiskDrake

[i_am_nitrogen]

Mandrake no longer uses Partition Magic, but rather DiskDrake. DiskDrake is similar in interface and function to PartitionMagic, but it runs on Linux within the Mandrake Installer. I believe it is based on libparted. GNU Parted might work on PPC Linux, but I'm not sure. Also, there is Norton Utilities for Macintosh (which is absolutely nothing like NU for Windoze). I've heard it's very useful for recovering data, doing partitioning, etc.

Anyway, I think this (SuSE 7.3 on PPC) is another small advancement for Linux that, among all the other small advancements, will slowly but surely take Linux to the top of the OS food chain. Now if only we could get major vendors to ship dual-boot systems...