TerraSoft Releases YellowDog Linux 3.0

chriseh writes "For those of us who prefer Linux to the candydrop OS, good news! YellowDog Linux 3.0 has been released. For those who don't want to wait, you can get an enhanced membership at YDL.net and download ISOs directly. As per other releases, ISOs will be available to everyone/mirrors two weeks after the CDs have been on sale.Finally, I can run Linux on my 12" Powerbook." extrarice amplifies: "New features include: Redesigned installer, a unified KDE 3.1/GNOME 2.2 desktop (both WMs share the same icons and menus), Kernel 2.4.20, and the usual package refinements/updates. More release info can be found here. Note: ISOs are not available yet, and CDs are scheduled to ship in mid-April. I have been running YDL 2.x for about a year now, and it's a fast, stable distro."

Comments

Why would I want this?

[sockit2me9000]

Maybe I'm missing something, but why would I want to install YDL. I can do everything I want in OS X now in a much friendlier operating system. Plus, now that I have an Apple X11 program I see fewer and fewer reasons. Moreover, when you buy an Apple you are paying a premium for the OS, why buy an apple when you could just buy a cheap box and install an x86 linux distro. Am I missing something?

Re:Why would I want this?

[ivan256]

I run linux on one of my Macs, but I do it for testing and building when I'm writing code for a customer with PowerPC processors in their embedded devices. Apple is the cheapest source for portable PowerPC machines, so I bought one, and I run linux on it.

OSX wouldn't run so well on my 333 Mhz lombard anyway, and linux is way better than OS 9.

Oh, BTW, I run Debian. I don't see any reason for these specialized PPC only Distros, and I don't know why they make news. Why would I want a distribution for one architecture that's different from the distro on all the other architectures I run? Also, why would I want to wait the rediculous periods between yellow dog releases when I can just use debian unstable and have the latest and greatest daily?

Re:Why would I want this?

[whjwhj]

I totally agree with your assessment. There are those with old hardware or special requirements that might have to run Linux on a Mac. But from a usability standpoint it's a no-brainer: OS X is an absolutely terrific desktop enviornment for unix. Running Linux "just because" on a mac is ridiculous. But there's plenty of Linux zealots who are going to run Linux on new mac hardware simply because they can and they think it's cool or whatever. I can't defend their lack of common sense and good taste.

I, personally, have better things to do than dink around with package installation, X configuration, and hardware compatibility issues. I'd rather be running iTunes, developing PHP apps, and popping in the occasional DVD movie than pitter around with Linux nonsense.

I *like* Linux. Don't get me wrong. That's what my Dell Inspiron Pentium III 500 is for. But on a Mac? No way.

Re:Why would I want this?

[ChristTrekker]

Less heat, due to lower power consumption, which leads directly to longer battery life if you're dealing with a laptop. Hot laptops are not nice either. The chip size itself becomes a factor if you're looking at embedded devices, and PPC is often chosen for embedded devices partly because of the heat/power issue.

Re:Why would I want this?

[squiggleslash]

I don't know why YOU would want to install YDL. You presumably don't need it.

Look, at home I have two Sun workstations, one is a file server and one is my firewall/router/NAT box. These Sun workstations came with a BSD-derived UNIX called SunOS.

I installed OpenBSD on them. Why? Because you can't get modern versions of SunOS (now Solaris, with System V, and with the name SunOS reserved for the kernel) to run on those machines. The original SunOSes wouldn't have done that great a job with what I use those machines for now. So basicly I use OpenBSD on them because, for the purposes I use these Unix-based machines for, OpenBSD works better.

Nobody laughs at this. It's obvious. Just because it comes with a Unix, a version of Unix that to many is a rather nice Unix, doesn't mean that that combination of OS + hardware is the most optimal. OpenBSD makes old Suns sing.

If I had a Mac with a four digit number for a name rather than a colour, and no desire to spend huge quantities of cash upgrading it, and, given I can't stand earlier Apple operating systems, I had no plans to install OS 8 on it (I love OS X, however I cringe every time I have to boot into OS 9.2), I'd probably be thinking "Server, Hmm, what can I use it for." And it'd probably be a choice between Darwin, OpenBSD, or YDL (or some other GNU/Linux distribution), depending on what I wanted to use it for.

Sometimes you have the hardware anyway, and the operating system that comes with it just will not make that hardware useful.

I'm confused...

[disneyfan1313]

Perhaps I don't understand but the whole reason I purchased an iMac was to have the great OS and the suite of apps that came with it. The hardware is good but nothing that amazing and could be purchased on the pc side for a lot less money if all you are going to do is turn around and install a linux distro. Am I missing why this is a "Good Thing"?

Yellow Dog makes your useless Mac usable again.

[rxed]

Its time to switch to Linux when you have dozens of old mac's that can run only old MAC OSes. With YD you can trun those (usless mac) machines in to servers, routers, firewalls etc.

Re:As I've asked before.

[chriseh]

Why ruin a perfectly good system with Mac OS X and install Linux over it?

Well, to each his own I guess. My experience with MacOS X hasn't been that good. We have over 15 Macs in our office (all G4s or iMac G4s) - most of them running MacOS X but mine only run YDL. For the most part, I get much better performance/response than my colleagues, even after Apple has added yet another beta browser to MacOS X. The anti-aliasing of everything in MacOS X also gives me a headache on CRT monitors after about an hour.

Also, call me old fashioned, but I still believe in free (as in "Freedom"), and MacOS X ain't. I use YDL, because they are a small company that *only* does PPC, so I know that their attention will be on *my* hardware and not some entirely different architecture.

While I'm starting to dislike MacOS X less, I still can't work with it anywhere near as quickly as Linux. And, with YDL on my Powerbook, I can setup a micro version of my servers and develop on a closed system while on the train, etc. with the exact same paths/etc. as my servers (IBM Xseries running RedHat, YellowDog briQs and G4s running YDL). Running the same OS on all my hardware makes it really easy to move the code around different architectures. It also means that I'm not forced to use a specific architecture, and can get the hardware that best suits the needs.

So, while YDL might not be for you, but if you own/like Apple hardware, having a distro that keeps your hardware relavant for longer is a good thing for you - whether you use it or not.

Re:Hey

[MisterFancypants]

Perhaps some folks that don't like running proprietary OSes on their hardware.

But they don't mind having proprietary hardware to begin with? Idiots.

Re:Candydrop OS?

[kwerle]

No way. /. Frickin' hates Unix Based OSes that run X11.

Especially when they're based on an open system based on BSD, that ship with gcc, perl, python, Java, and apache