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Terra Soft Offers Linux-booting iPods, FW Drives
Kai Staats of Terra Soft writes "We are pleased to now offer support for bootable iPods and FireWire drives, enabling a highly portable Linux on PowerPC environment." Note that this is about booting a Macintosh into Linux, not running Linux on the iPod.
Wise remark. Like it or not - apple hw, without max os x isn't a mac.
:P
It's just another linux machine with that horrible X thing on it.
Wintel hardware is like US TV. More than a hundred channels, and nothing on.
"A Mac[intosh]" is a piece of hardware. "Mac OS[X]" is software. If you buy an iMac or Mac mini, and boot to Yellow Dog, you don't have "a Yellow Dog", you have "a Mac running Yellow Dog".
There are several Mac OS emulators (mostly for OS7) I can run on my PC, even full screen, (not to mention the PearPC for OSX). I still have a PC, not a Mac.
Perhaps instead of just stating it as a fact, you could explain why the above is wrong.
Link?
The only part were I read him criticize PowerPC is MMU's handling which I don't really consider that it is part of the assembly language..
"apple hw, without max os x isn't a mac."
So all the macs they sold with MacOS 1-9 have turned into pumpkins?
Allow me to reverse troll. The 1984 machines were real macs, crash prone and overpriced. OS X is just another unix machine that favors eye candy over functionality.
Right, because theres a ton of 60 gb USB keys...
Which Linux distro takes up 60 GB?
Sheesh, guys, just because it's a commercial announcement doesn't mean it's not "stuff that matters". This might be useful - or at least interesting - to some of the folks here that actually work for a living.
Personally I'd rather see more of this on Slashdot and less of the "New Star Wars III fanfict trailer released!".
#DeleteChrome
Phrase it still another way - what kind of idiot pays that much money for a slow external 60GB hard drive?
Setting aside those two arguments ( which are fairly compeling, but we'll set them aside since you say so ) there is only one scenario I can think of where I'd run Linux on *my* Mac, but it's entirely likely. I currently use a Mac at home. What if, next month, I get a gig programming in a Linux environment? Am I going to go out and buy a whole new machine, or am I going to install Linux on my existing hardware?
If I can install Linux on my existing hardware, I'm going to. But I'm not going to want to boot my machine that way all the time, because OS X has a good number of apps that I use ( for non-work purposes ) which don't exist ( really ) under Linux, and I'm not sure the wife and 3-year-old are ready to make the switch ot Linux.
So doing the external-hard-drive thing would be neat. And using something as tiny as an iPod to carry my entire Linux world around between home and work? Even cooler.
Instead of buying a new mobo for my outdated PC that's been sitting idle for years now, I can buy an iPod, and maybe even write it off! Super-cool.
As for the market? It's probably not huge, but does it need to be? I thought OSS was about having options, not about having the biggest install base...
troll...
Maybe some people don't like OS X. It is possible, you know. I run deb on my dual 1.8Ghz G5.
In some ways, OS X is the worst of both worlds.
It's FreeBSD... but, well, it's not FreeBSD. It has linux ports... but, well, it's not really linux either.
Another analogy: OS X is to *nix what tofu is to meat.
It looks great- but is missing some fundamental stuff that 'just works' under linux. The end result is that I have a great looking operating system that doesn't really run much that I like or do what i want it to do. Here are some quick examples off the top of my head:
* Finding a free FLAC player takes some work (MacAmp) whereas, under linux I have several choices.
* Apple's Java is seriously broken and I don't really have much of a choice. Under linux, I can use IBMs Java.
* Multiple Desktops would be nice under OS X.
* File browsing with Konquerer is unmatched. Period.
* Lack of decent Office packages under OS X. MS Office? Well, I said decent. Appleworks? sorry. With the exception of Openoffice.org, the rest are overpriced (Mariner Write etc.). Openoffice under OS X simply blows. IIRC, their OS X project was cancelled.
In short, linux is much more usable for me than OS X is. Besides, i just plain like it.
That being said, some downsides to linux on ppc include: broken sound on newer G5s and 3d support non-existent with nothing in sight.
That's ok, Jesus likes me anyway.
Edit: Well, that's how I began this post before the parent got remodded with a bit of, uh... moderation.
IIRC, the ULV Pentium-M consumes 7 Watts and has a higher IPC than the G4. At 1.1 GHz it will outperform the G4 in computation and power consumption. The benchmarks I've seen rank flagship Dothans alongside A64 4000+ with an Achilles Heel only on applications that bottleneck on memory bandwith before anything else. They do this with a TDP of 25 Watts. The PM has already sounded a death knell for Transmeta (if it isn't dead already) and will kill off the P4 once Intel decides it can retire that beast quietly.
Everything I've been able to gather from official specs and anecdotal reports makes the grandparent's claim about battery life shaky at best.
Apple laptops are excellent. I'm posting this from one right now. But let's not kid ourselves into thinking they're hand crafted by geniuses too sublime for pedestrian consumers unworthy of membership in Apple's Magic Circle. They're built by the same ODM that makes lappies for IBM.
Who in their right mind would run a generic Linux instead of OS X?
Maybe because they want a portable workstation. Basically, take the iPod to Workstation-1 and work from there. Then take it home plug it in to your Workstation and keep all your settings, files, etc.
Would it be better if it was a Mac-X booting iPod?
What about IBM? After all, they are one of the worlds largest companies. Also, they are the leading developer of PowerPC, seeing as they are the designers and one of the only manufacturers of such chips. Don't they use that Linux thingie there too?
Company 'foo' offers new product isn't news? Okay, no more "Apple farts, smells like roses" articles, "Intel releases newest chip" articles, or any new products what-so-ever...
Do you really want to be stuck with stories only about "I got my X to run Linux!" articles and "How do I search the internet" ask slashdot posts?
"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge"
- Charles Darwin
Why is this rated so high? Are you unaware that all iPods are ALREADY external hard drives as well as portable music players? The 1st Gen iPod had this as do all the rest. I know the Anti-Apple people needed a post to mod higher, but this one is simply wrong. Mac users have booted their systems from iPods since day one. This is the first LINUX system built in such a way that the Mac firmware will recognize it and boot off it. No configuration needed, no BIOS to play with, no bootloader tricks. Just plug it in and restart and ur good.
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Does anyone else think this is a bad idea? iPods are intended for short bursts of hard drive activity, and will likely overheat if used for anything more strenuous. Do this at your own risk!