Yellow Dog Linux 4.0 - Finally in Limited Release

sloopy writes "Terra Soft Solutions has released the long awaited and overdue next version of Yellow Dog Linux - version 4.0, for ydl.net enhanced subscribers and pre-installed on new machines, with full release to hopefully soon follow in the coming weeks. With this new release, they finally include native support for the new G5s (32-bit kernel/toolchain currently, full 64-bit soon) and continued support for the G4s and newer G3s."

Comments

Re:I like Linux but...

[colinleroy]

I like to run linux on my iBook (which doesn't even have OS X installed), just because it's the easiest way to have a consistent experience between computers (same softs, same config, same everything) . I also prefer lots of things of GNU/Linux over OS X, even customized OS X.

Question for Yellow Dog users...

[dave-tx]

I'm a new owner of a powerbook and have thought about installing YDL, but I haven't seen a reason for it... With X11 installed, it seems to me that I can do everything I need with OSX, which is *nix enough to do everything I do with my Fedora Core system.

Can any YDL advocates provide some insight as to why they prefer this over OSX?

Shameless plug alert!

[jonathan_atkinson]

I once wrote an article which summarises my experience with Linux on Apple hardware. It was published on OSNews. It's a little dated now (I wrote it a little over a year ago), but it offers my opinion on Yellow Dog Linux, which was overwhelmingly positive. Check it out here.

--Jon

Linux + Powerbook

[trans_err]

Finally! I have long awaited this release as YDL3 was becoming slightly dated. A lot of people ask, why Linux when I can already use my sleek powerbook to run X applications and hell even apt-get software from Fink's binary repository. The answer is the same to why someone would want to run Linux on an x86 machine. Why run linux when you could just use cgywin?

MacOS X does Just Work, but sometimes it doesn't work the way I want it too. Sometimes I want to be able to compile any package and KNOW that it is going to work. Sometimes I want a pure linux development environment, and I am willing to take in a few of the caveats (ie. improper pmud).

Othertimes I just feel mired by a sleek GUI when I know how quickly I can execute the same task with a full linux environment.

Linux on apple hardware is a great thing (don't dis it until you try it :D).

Firewire boot

[Danathar]

I've have some powerbook owners who would like to be able to run Yellowdog but off of an external Firewire drive. Last I checked Yellowdog did not support this. Does anybody know what the status is on this feature.

Even though having a dual boot system is fairly safe "if you know what you are doing" there are people who don't want to muck with their OS X disk.

Re:I like Linux but...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yep, I run YDL on an iBook 500 (lucky me, hw modem, but its still flakey compared to MacOS 9-X) generally because I wanted a more widely supported UNIX-like install for development, i.e. avoiding hoop jumping that used to be so common with earlier OSX releases, but are now, mostly, history...

Secondly, YDL can run a bit faster than OSX on this hw if I use a lighter wm/desktop e.g. fluxbox, xfce, etc. In which case it can be a little faster. That being said my Pismo(also a 500) runs OSX faster than the ibook and the only real hw diff is the 66M v. 100M bus...

Downsides: modem support is not very good(probably limited hw doc access), as is power management support(probably same as with modem), and airport support isn't too hot either(i.e. I end up doing quite a bit of manual configuring...), sound support is well, basically crap, and DVD playback non-existant...(although these last 2 are extremely minor issues for me as this system is not really for gaming or video watching...)

In fact with recent OSX releases I have been seriously considering moving back to OSX, but am leery of dealing with all the multimeg updates(modem)... installing fink(or whatever, again multimeg + modem ick) But then I'd have good modem support, power management, sound, and airport config again(or at least in a non-manual, or not as manual sort of way...)

Newer iBooks/Powerbooks: er... isn't there a conexant(? binary) driver for the sw/USB modem? I've heard that it introduces potential stability problems, but I've never encountered them...

YDL itself: at the time it installed with the fewest problems v. debian/slackintosh/suse and seemed like it would receive the most attention, although it now seems that debian or gentoo would be as good alternatives if you have any clue, but I guess that you wouldn't be attempting to run linux if you didnt... I'd also hazard that maybe a Darwin based distro would be even better as the kernel would likely have better support for hw, maybe, but I've never really investigated myself as I'd rather just get all the goodies and run OSX if I was going to bother with a Darwin base...

Re:I like Linux but...

[amichalo]

How about for relatively recent [emphasis added] Apple hardware that will run OS X poorly, like my aging 350MHz iMac? ... just last night I was looking into converting the little blue gumball to Linux.

According to EveryMac, your computer was released 10/5/99 - that's five years give or take a few weeks. How is that relatively recent when Apple only started selling Macs 20 years ago?

The list price was $999 which means you have gotten core computer usage for ~$200 a year, or less than $0.55 a day. Perhaps it is time to upgrade to a system that DOES run OS X.

Did you know about this or this? Both are in the range of your existing investment - AND YOU GET A NEW APPLE COMPUTER!