Slashdot Mirror
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.
WTF?
$500 for a plain, low end box is not cheap. A Dell 2.8 GHz P4 with a 19" LCD, keyboard, and mouse for $529 is cheap.
True, Steve Jobs has not blessed it and you probably won't see it used by some trendy featherbrain on "Sex and the City," but it can crunch a lot of numbers for hundreds less than a similarly configured Mac.
BS, look at small form factor PCs and you'll pay $200 just on the chasis, and it still won't be as small or quiet as a Mac mini.
the Mac mini is very cheap if any off the following have value to you:
-footprint
-noise
-beautiful, fully-functional, secure, stable OS
-style
if you don't care about usability and judge things on "just the specs ma'am", then you can stick with your Intel box and continue to believe that uptimes should be measured in hours or that you only need 50% of your components supported anyway.
Funny how NetBSD seems to work on toasters, wristwatches and Gameboys just fine, but it took them *this* long to get it to work on the Mac Mini, which is an actual computer.
fuck you fucking fuck head
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
Does Fink support multiple desktops and Unix-style copy/paste?