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.

Comments

OS included?

[WilyCoder]

Is it possible to get a mini without the apple OS?

If you can't, then whats the point? You've already paid for an OS....

Re:OS included?

[ciroknight]

Odd, you know what motivated me to buy one of their pretty plastic boxes (iBook G4 as well)? iTunes.

I was so impressed on how well iTunes worked for me, though not being perfect, it seemlessly worked with my iPod and my crappy Riothingy I had at the time. When time came to buy a laptop for college, I looked at my options and saw OS X. Now, I'd seen OS X before; 10.0 disks came with my teacher's G4 desktop (our school's video editing machine), but it wasn't quite the beast I was looking at on Apple's website. I thought, "an entire operating system, as seemless as iTunes, as crashproof as OS X, and good battery life on their laptops." I was sold.

I would have NEVER considered an Apple product had it not been for OS X 10.3. 10.0 was fine and dandy, but it seemed sluggish, nothing seemed to work quite the way it should have, and required expensive hardware to run on. OS X 10.3, however, was stylish, integrated, things Just Work(tm)ed and on top of it all, it was a HELL of a lot cheaper than the Wintel laptop I considered (1300 w/ educational deal, plus 69 for another iPod, vs 2100 for the Dell I would have otherwise got [centrino]).

Re:OS included?

[jericho4.0]

I call BS on all three of you. Apple is a magical place, staffed by gnomes, that sells hardware, software, and drugs to children.

Re:OS included?

[bonch]

Except that the Mac mini isn't a 64-bit G5.

Re:OS included?

[amonredotorg]

Mind reader.

1. Installing Linux or BSD takes time and experience; Mac OS X comes preinstalled.
2. You can run most Linux/BSD software on Mac OS X. X11 comes preinstalled, too.
3. Mac OS X doesn't lack any package management systems: Fink, DarwinPorts and now even Gentoo MacOS.
4. No need to compile and install drivers for any devices you have. They are preinstalled.
5. If you don't like the Mac OS X GUI, run X11 with your favourite window manager in fullscreen. It works perfectly.
6. You can easily use X11 and the Mac OS X GUI at the same time. It works perfectly, too.

The list goes on.

"Free Software on a Cheap Computer" doesn't mean getting rid of Mac OS X, dammit.

Re:OS included?

[duffbeer703]

"...it was a HELL of a lot cheaper than the Wintel laptop I considered (1300 w/ educational deal, plus 69 for another iPod, vs 2100 for the Dell I would have otherwise got [centrino])."

That's like saying that a Honda Civic is better than a Bentley because the Civic costs $13k and the Bentley $130k.

A $1300 iBook is a much lower end machine in comparison to a $2100 centrino machine. The Dell you compared had a bigger, higher resolution screen, faster CPU, more memory and hard disk.

Mac hardware is excellent, but more expensive -- you could get a laptop similar to your iBook for about $300 less.

I'm buying a Powerbook when Tiger is released, understanding that I'm paying a premium over what I would pay for another functionally similar Thinkpad T42 or T43.

Re:OS included?

[Anonymous Coward]

The real question here is:

Why would I give a crap about a free OS for a computer which already comes with a better one as a standard feature?

I mean, if I'm building a cheap AMD tower for $300, then yes, load her up with Linux or BSD and save myself the "Microsoft Tax." By all means, great idea. I get a better OS, and save myself about a hundred bucks. Fantastic.

But the mini already comes with an OS which not only works better than any of the free alternatives, but will run most "free" software (plus a lot of apps which a Linux box won't.) What would be the point, unless I'm a "free as in speech" Stallmanist cult member?

Unbeatable?

[gellenburg]

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.

Especially when all of these things ... as well as full hardware support comes with the f*cking computer!.

Ever hear of installing the Developer Tools on your Installation CD?

No offense, I'm a big *BSD supporter, but this article's summary is rediculous.

Re:Sadly the support isn't complete (Airport)

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, the ordinary (802.11b) airport cards are supported quite well as they use the popular orinoco chipset. Monitor mode is even supported for all your sniffing needs.

Airport Extreme (802.11g) cards remain unsupported for the same reason other broadcom chipset based cards are - no information was released on how to actually use these chips.

Re:Cheap? Hardly.

[nunchux]

You fail to mention that this system is listed at nearly double that price, and the link shows you how to go through rebate hell to get a deal. And the deal expires tonight.

Re:Cheap? Hardly.

[McDutchie]

$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 [gotapex.com] is cheap.

No DVD player in the Dell, nor FireWire, nor a modem, nor a stack of bundled software, nor 90 days of free telephone support. Nor is it small, or silent. Laptop technology, which is what the Mini uses, is more expensive.

Just because the Dell costs less doesn't mean the Mac Mini isn't cheap, especially since the box contains more in less space.

Fullscreen in QTP

[Monx]

if you are reffering to quicktime, yes, they charge for fullscreen

They just charge for the menu item:

tell application "QuickTime Player"
enter full screen display 1
set the scale of movie 1 to screen
play movie 1
end tell

Sunk cost

[omnirealm]

If you can't, then whats the point? You've already paid for an OS

When making decisions about your future actions, you should not take into consideration what you have already spent. That's a sunk cost, and it can only serve to bias your decision. Rather, you should be considering, from where you stand right now, what your best options are for the future. This is why companies will spend millions on building a new facility, only to abandon it one month before completion. They do this because they figure that they will wind up losing more by continuing to dump time and effort into the facility, so what's the point?

If you get more usability, security, performance, or what have you, out of Linux than you do out of MacOS X, then it does not matter whether or not you have already paid for MacOS X. That has nothing to do with what operating system you should be using from this point forward.

Parent has simple QT solution, pls mod up.

[cfalcon]

One of the reasons I go to slashdot is the sheer power of people fixing annoying problems with 1-10 lines of text.

Re:hardware support

[StarManta.Mini]

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.

Re:What about Mini-ITX platform?

[LongShip]

I'm currently agonizing over the decision to build a Mini-ITX or buy a ready made MiniMac. I'm probably going to do the Mini-ITX. However,...

Unfortunately Mini-ITX is not cost effective. One has to specifically want either an extremely small, or extremely quiet computer and be willing to pay the admission price. The MiniMac offers both at a very good price (comparitively).

In order to compete with MiniMac, a Mini-ITX box would have an MII-12000 MoBo ($200+ US) plus a small box like one of the Casetronic Travla's (~$150), low profile memory (~$80), a slim optical drive (~$80+), and a notebook hard drive (the only cost effective peripheral ~$70). Total cost, ~%570. The Mini-ITX would have user service-ability, Compact Flash + PC-Card, and better connectivity. But the G4-based MiniMac would blow the doors off the C3 Nehemiah-based Mini-ITX box.

Until Mini-ITX components come down in price, the MiniMac might be the more cost effective solution.
But only in the very small, very quiet computer market. As others in this forum have already pointed out, one can build a faster X86 box for less money. If one doesn't care about small and quiet, that's the way to go.

Re:cheap $500 ?

[mrchaotica]

What part of SMALL FORM FACTOR do you not understand?

Let alone NOT WINDOWS...