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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.
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Instead of buying a new mobo for my outdated PC that's been sitting idle for years now, I can buy an iPod, and maybe even write it off!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.
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
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!