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Free Software on a Cheap Computer
Shell writes "Is this the solution to free software on a cheap computer? NetBSD and Yellow Dog Linux have both begun to support the Mac Mini. This article from IBM looks at open source operating system options on this new contender in the embedded PowerPC platform space." From the article: "This article looks at the current state of Linux and NetBSD support on the Mini. If you need all the hardware and options fully supported, these open source options won't do it for you ... yet. But, if all you need is a stable kernel, a C compiler, and network support, the code is high-quality and the price is unbeatable." This is part two in the series. Part One was covered a while back.
I call BS on all three of you. Apple is a magical place, staffed by gnomes, that sells hardware, software, and drugs to children.
"A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
...to stop paying the Apple Computer tax! I read somewhere that if you buy an Apple, you can leave the OS in the box uninstalled and return it to Apple for a refund of the price of the OS. Just install Linux or BSD on one of these babies and you've never had to deal with the Apple shrink wrap license. Has anyone tried this yet? Apple is maing money hand over fist with their OS monopoly on nice looking *nix. The time to put a stop to it has come! Kick out the expensive nice looking *nix in favor of the free but slighlty unsightly *nixes instead! Fight for your freedoms because Apple hates our freedumb!!!
One of the reasons I go to slashdot is the sheer power of people fixing annoying problems with 1-10 lines of text.
This post will likely be modded redundant, but I just need to shoot my mouth off for a bit.
I don't see why anyone buying a Mini would want to do this. It's completely insane to "fix" something that works fine by replacing it with stuff that almost works.
It's like buying a new car, running really smoothly, a great piece of equipment - and the first thing you do is replace the engine with one that works less well, and after that replacing the seats with banana crates.
I enjoy large posteriors and I cannot prevaricate.
Then again, can someone remind me why the UNIX under OSX is not good enough?
Because it wasn't compiled and installed from scratch, obviously.
Also, it's too easy to set up and use, and there's not enough hacking to get apps installed.
That was about the longest way possible to say "because maybe you like Linux more than OS X"
NetBSD has 64-bit support.
Are you going to say 'Oh Wow! A 64-bit OS!' when I run it on my Macintosh SE/30?
I saw the PowerEdgeTM SC420.
Let me know if there's a cheaper one. I brought it down to $428.00 by removing the second hard drive and giving it the lowest cost Celeron. I had to add in a DVD/CD-RW combo drive, though, to make it the same as a mini. The non-promotional price is $598.00. Being a PowerEdge, its probably a bit bigger, heavier, and louder (I still suffer from hearing loss when I had to sit next to a PowerEdge at work several years ago).
Of course, if you used reeeaallllly long microphone cables, you could record music without the fan noise showing up in the background, and even leave it on at night to download the latest linux iso. Also, If you start to get out of shape, you could lift it a few times for a good workout. Faced away from you, this server makes a great indoor fan/space heater. On the plus side, there's a one-year limited warranty at that cost.
Not sure why you'd want to
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