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LinuxPPC64 Contest
Robert MacFarlan writes: "IBM is sponsoring a Open Source developer contest for their Linux on POWER (Linux PPC 64)
effort. The contest is designed to award and showcase innovative
new open source applications that are designed or optimized specifically
for Linux running on the PPC architecture. The contest also awards ports
of existing applications from a predetermined list. Contest prizes
include Segway HTs, Apple Power Mac G5s, and cash awards.
"
My bet is that it's listed under Apple since the 2nd tier winners get:
Apple Power Mac G5 and $1,000 cash prize.
Either that or Hemos knows something we have only heard rumors about between Apple and IBM...
"I'd be smart if I didn't let thinking get in the way."
It's probably the same reason that everything about applications for generic Unix systems get filed under the "Linux" section. The current list of sections is a little poorly chosen, to put it mildly. There is no IBM or Power section, or anything that really would make a good home for Power related topics.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
But it isn't Apple hardware! It's all IBM. It's not even PPC, it's POWER, which Apple doesn't use.
Check out number 99. They want someone to port wine!
Now, porting between OS's on the same architecture is difficult. Porting between the same OS on different architectures can be easy, or insanely difficult. Porting a "not-an-emulator" that "ports" other applications running on a different operating system across a different architecture to run the "ported" application on the non-native architecture... well, the word difficult just doesn't seem to cut it.
But, if anyone manages to do it they deserve a freakin' medal!
Karma: SELECT `karma` FROM `users` WHERE `userid`=138474;
I know that this is a "contest" but since you kind of get paid (toyota prius) for work (a pice of software that works on PPC), would you include the price as part as your taxable income? What do the IRS people think about that?
Mentioning PPC gives an Apple topic automatically?
:)
Welcome to Slashdot, User 38... Oh.
Yes. So does anything having anything to do with portable digital audio players.
Help savingAmigaOS and a free PowerPC market
looks like mods woke up in the wrong week/year today. Guess they are a little caught up in there current poll.
-- Knowing too much can get you killed, but knowing who knows too much can make you rich.
POWER is an acronym. "Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC", IIRC.
;)
Now go shout at the eejits who shout "MAC" when referring to cute plastic from Apple, Inc.
Help savingAmigaOS and a free PowerPC market
Read the article. Entries due by June 2005.. Registration Now..
Who is moding around here...???
So in order to join the contest I have to pony up some money for a POWER system... ...aye, there's the rub me laddie.
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
What page are you reading??? This contest is designed for Open Source Developers world-wide (w/ the exception of Quebec Canada). Please see the official rules.
This post patent pending.
Actually, the grandparent was complaining about the tied hardware with insufficent released specs. Which isn't likely to change, unfortnuately, since Apple has been doing this pretty much as long as they have existed.
Though I don't pretend to understand what Apple thinks they are gaining by holding back things like full specs on the airport extreme card in my notebook which would allow better development from the open source community with no downside I can see for Apple. But such is the way of the fruit. And I like my little notebook enough, but this is one of the annoyances of going with the Apple platform.
And if someone can tell me why the airport network interface is only brought up AFTER someone logs into the machine, thus making NIS authentication over the wireless card a moot point, I would like to know that, as well. Ah, but that is wandering far off topic.
7. What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.
"While some companies permit Quebec entrants, many are scared away by unique rules that are mandated by the province's gaming agency.
Quebec is the lone Canadian jurisdiction that requires security deposits, charges fees and enforces strict rules about draws valued at more than $100. Some American states also enforce rules that prevent their residents from participating in contests.
In addition to requiring that all documents be written in French, Quebec's agency charges three per cent of the value of all national prizes, even if a Quebecer doesn't claim a prize, or 10 per cent of the value of a contest run exclusively in the province. The agency collected nearly $1.7 million in fees last year.
In the rest of Canada, large contests are governed only by the federal Competition Act, a broad framework for promotional contests.
"People often exclude Quebec just because they're afraid of these rules and don't really understand them," said Sharon Groom, a Toronto lawyer who represents many advertisers that run contests as a marketing tool.
"They're not actually that bad but a lot of our clients will say we don't want to be bothered with doing this, so they exclude Quebec."
Remember when IBM Clone or Compatable meant something running DOS or Windows on and Intel chip? What irony.
Someone hates these cans.
I don't get it. Are they rewarding the project that comes up with the poorest code portability? I always thought that one of the strongest points of Open Source Software is portability across platforms (OS and CPU architectures). Does IBM (in the role of a strong platform vendor) publicly promote going in the opposite direction?
I'd expect that since most code developed on x86 can be ported to PPC, the opposite is probably true as well.
But that's the problem - most Linux PPC Linux apps are ports of x86 apps.
The object here, I think, is to promote PPC as a primary platform for Linux development, rather than a platform applications are ported to as an afterthought.
Though I don't pretend to understand what Apple thinks they are gaining by holding back things like full specs on the airport extreme card in my notebook
They probably aren't allowed to do so by their agreement with Broadcom, the chip's manufacturer. I think you'll find that Broadcom hasn't released open information on any of their products, so their refusal to allow Apple to do so is in keeping with that position.
So the question becomes: why doesn't Broadcom release info to allow Linux users to use their gear? Who knows. Or, why does Apple choose a manufacturer that refuses to play with OSS? That's probably due to a) historical reasons--the stuff is working now, so it's have to be re-engineered using a different source, and b) there's not enough interest for Linux-on-Apple to warrant the change.
But the bottomline is that if Broadcom released their info, Apple would be more likely to follow their lead.
--
$tar -xvf
The Airport specs aren't being withheld by Apple, it's a Broadcom chipset which is proprietary.
There's a petition for Broadcom to release opensource drivers on PetitionOnline.com.
-Glitch "We all know Linux is great...it does infinite loops in 5 seconds." - Linus Torvalds
The object here, I think, is to promote PPC as a primary platform for Linux development
And to illustrate the advantages of the PPC arch, maybe including AltiVec, through optimization. While you can develop anything for the PPC, I would guess the winning entries would make good use of the benefits of the PPC arch vs. the Intel/AMD archs.
Some things do better on PPC, some things don't, and IBM is likely looking for good examples of the former.
--
$tar -xvf
Broadcom hasn't released open information on any of their products.
not true. not only have they released information on their gigabit ethernet chips, they also contributed drivers to the kernel.
their wireless stuff is another story, iirc broadcom is under NDA due to some of the technology and core logic they licensed from others.