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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.
Torvald's response came quickly and succinctly. "My main machine these days is a dual 2GHz G5 (aka PowerPC 970) - it's physically a regular Apple Mac, although it obviously only runs Linux, so I don't think you can call it a Mac any more ;)" he said.
It's cool that you brought up the port issue. I'll expound on my frustration with linux on PPC...
I ran a webserver on PPC linux (SuSE) for a few years. The SuSE folks did a good job porting all the standard linux apps and packages over from x86. But as I sought to customize my server with special CGI packages that did stuff like photo galleries and log analysis, I would run into roadblocks because necessary libs weren't available in PPC rpms. Sure, I could try to compile them myself, but in most attempts at this, I'd run into all kinds of compile errors for which I have no knowledge of how to troubleshoot.
Eventually I scrapped my PPC server and switched to an old dual Celeron x86 box running Mandrake. It was very nice to have everything readily available for my distro.
At the point that this server dies, I intend to replace it with my antiquated B/W G3 450mhz box. I see more development focusing on Mac OS X PPC than linux PPC as I think there is a significantly larger userbase on Mac OS X than linux PPC. So, unlike mr Torvaldis, I'll probably run my system (server) off Mac OS X at that point. My desktop will remain Mac OS X.
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
Saying that a Mac without OS X isn't a Mac just isn't true. There's more to a Mac than software.
Linus' claim is correct. A Mac without OS X is not truly a Mac, as it doesn't offer the full Mac experience. However, that doesn't mean that Apple's hardware is run-of-the-mill. It's quite superb, as you've pointed out, and there are other non-mac examples of this (iPods, Airport Base Stations [I think the express is a really cool product], we've even got a few LaserWriters still in use at my work).
I think this is one of the legitimate reasons why you SHOULD run Linux on a Mac. He's fricken Linus, man! It's hard to do what he does (work on Linux) without using Linux. He's made the choice for real, practical reasons. It frustrates me that several in the slashdot crowd want to run Linux on Apple hardware because they think there's some lame/n00b stigma attached to OS X. I've said it plenty of times before, and I'll say it again: OS X run's the majority of unixoid apps just fine. It's the best-fit for Apple hardware; the level of integration between hardware/software is going to be very difficult to reproduce with Linux, especially on a notebook. Don't make the switch unless you have stuff that needs to be done under Linux that simply CAN NOT be done under OS X...
Is this how Linus boots his Mac?
500GB of disk, 5TB of transfer, $5.95/mo
At least for a change they're not trying to pretend this is a real article instead of a commercial. They're being very obvious that it's an unpaid advertisement. That's an improvement for Slashdot of late.
Sad.
--GrouchoMarx
Card-carrying member of the EFF, FSF, and ACLU. Are you?
"Terra Soft Solutions(R), Inc., the leading developer of integrated PowerPC Linux solutions"
Woah! Leading developer of integrated PowerPC Linux solutions. That's impressive! I wonder if there is a second place?
If it runs Linux.
My flatmates powerbook blew out the harddrive. In order to do it on the cheap and still make the machine useful, he is running OSX from his Ipod.
Hippo Linux, the worlds premiere bloatware distro. Their "enhanced" version of Emacs takes up 8 gigs by itself.
So, they only have to give it to "members" or whomever they provide binaries to.
-Peter
Unfortunately the lack of an airport driver is the main reason I have not gone with Linux on my Mac. I prefer a 100% open source operating system instead of apple's open source darwin/closed source aqua. That and I can't check homestarrunner.com cause there's no open source flash viewer and macromedia won't release ppc closed source compatible version.
check out the best blog ever:
http://oehlberg.com
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...
Of course, Old world macs aren't firewire bootable either. But YDL is very fast on old world macs compared to OS X via Xpostfacto on old world hardware. (which is still good if not aged hardware) I'm currently running OS X on a G3 upgraded Powercomputing clone (thanks to Xpostfacto). at 420Mhz, it is slow compared to YDL on a Beige G3 266. So it is either OS 9 or YDL on old hardware. It is getting harder to get modern web browser features on OS 9.
the firmware loaded onto macs nowindays is quite impressive in that it can do all sorts of things with firewire. booting off of a firewire device is one of the more tame 'tricks' it can do.
OpenFirmware can also make your mac pretend that it's a firewire hard drive. Connect the mac to another machine (another mac or a PC that can read HFS+ partitions), and boot up the machine while holding down the T key. Before the OS loads, the computer enters target disk mode, and every hard drive attached to that computer appears as a normal firewire device to the other computer.
I don't see why this wouldn't work with an ext3 or ReiserFS partition... it's a VERY useful trick for restoring a trashed system (which in all honsety rarely happens in Mac OS, but is rather common on Windows and Linux if you're compiling your own kernels and such)
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
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.
Their hard drives aren't designed for booting OSes from. Too much seeking will fry them.
I left a ham sandwich on my desk today and forgot about it. When I got back three geeks were working to make it boot Linux.
Insert witty sig here.
"Yeah, but they run Linux."
So... I'm guessing we can't get that with an automatic transmission, then.
"Derp de derp."
"Terra Soft has created a hybrid Yellow Dog Linux v4.0.1 #1 Install CD that incorporates the changes required to install to an iPod or FireWire drive from the graphical installer. This hybrid is immediately available through YDL.net Enhanced accounts at www.ydl.net."
Now I can play around with Linux on PPC without touching my current setup! Great!
Now the problem becomes: how long before the new ISOs become available to the public?
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!