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Benjamin Herrenschmidt On PPC/Linux, Apple and OSS
MacBoy writes "The folks over at ResExcellence have a great interview with Benjamin Herrenschmidt, kernel guru for the PPC/Linux camp. He offers up some history of Linux on Apple and PPC hardware, and some discussion on Apple's current and past contributions to the open-source and Linux communities. He makes some interesting comparisons of Linux on PPC vs. Intel hardware, such as the ease of getting important patches into the kernel on PPC compared to Intel. It's an interesting read, especially if you are amoung the many who covet the new Dual-CPU GHz G4 Macs and want to know a little more about the PPC/Linux community."
How about speed? Linux uses a monolithic kernel while OS X uses a microkernel, and we all know monolithic kernels are MUCH faster than microkernels. Even old outdated Linux kernels outperform brand new builds of OS X as a webserver and at other important tasks which is what OS X is really geared at doing. OS X can however be modified by optimizing device drivers but do you really want to spend all that time? Linux is fast right out of the box. I don't have to mention the GUI do I. Apple's is terribly slow and most of it is in fact useless.
How about system requirements. Linux needs very little to run while OS X needs 128 MB RAM min. Linux can run on old macs while OS X cannot (without being hacked).
How about price. Linux is free while OS X is not. OS X costs $129.00 at the Apple store.
How about for the advanced user. OS X hides many admin tools deep in the GUI while Linux does not. OS X is built for newbies while Linux is built partly for both advanced and newbies.
Apple should have built OS X off of Linux if they were smart. It is better in many ways than Darwin/Mach.
--Metrollica
If you bought a mac for performance reasons then you probably need to keep taking your lithium. BTW I love the "for certain operations" bit.
I have trouble with passwords among other things.