Linuxfromscratch.com has a project that aims to automate the process of building your own linux setup storing configuration files in XML, read the intro page they propose you could go to a website and fill out a survey type form to define your system, which would create a configuration file that could build everything correctly. It sounds to me like a huge undertaking but if distros chimed in on this and contributed the tools and expertise they have in how to install a linux system automagically, Automated Linux From scratch could become a standard tool used by anyone wanting to setup linux on anything. To go one step further and convert my/etc directory to MPXML (My Penguin XML...I made that up) well I don't know if this would be a good thing.
this way if you need more open windows you can get the enterprise server edition and spend an extra bunch of cash.
BTW what the hell do you need to open that many windows for? you don't even have grouping on your taskbar or the ability to create several workspaces/desktops and ALT-arrow between them like we do under Linux/Gnome. I can see your taskbar with each pixel representing a window must be real..'userfriendly'.
Much like an ISP would hand you an IP, your digital box is addressable. When you change channels on a digital system, your box tells the headend "give me this channel" so it's not like you can just decode the stream coming down the pipe, digital is a 2 way deal. Many if not most cable systems are working twords all digital and will drop the analog part of the frequency as soon as they can (I think FCC is making them phase analog out slowly for some reason but I may be wrong on that).
One solution is to use some Infared controller on your pc to make the digital box do it's thing from the PC.
to see how this all works, go to www.cablemodem.com the cablelabs website. cable labs does DOCSIS certification on equipment, DOCSIS is the Protocol of cable networks and it supports Video, Data(internet) and Telephony (your phone service. if you could design a PCI card that could talk docsis, you could fake like your pc was the digital box, but I'd rather hack an IR to control the digital box.
while your at it, you ought to give Mandrake Linux a shot. I think that's the only other PPC Distro you haven't tried. I've been very please with Mandrake over here in X86 land.
the reason this is even an issue is that you're currently locked into MS tools. Along that line, the longer you wait to make the switch the harder it will become.
Take the plunge, to move to XP and THEN try to get out will be even harder. In a world without fences, who needs Gates?
http://www.totalimpact.com/G3_MP.html
they also make mac's that fit in a drive bay.
and from the site:
Total mPOWER Product Description
PCI: Single slot PCI card
12.2" x 5.2" PCI 2.1 Interface 32 and 64 bit
33/66MHz Host Interface using Digital 21554 PCI to PCI Bridge (data sheet attached). Processors:
PowerPC G3/G4 a.k.a. PPC 750/7400. Interposer based processor design. Boards are available with up to 4 processors. Features:
Supercaler (3 IPC: 2 Instructions + Branch) G3 Dual 32KB Instruction and Data non-blocking caches Dual MMUs Hardware Tablewalk On-chip debug suppoirt (JTAG/COP) External L2 cache interface Level 2 Cache:
1Mb of L2 "Backside Cache" per processor. Local Bus:
Local 60X bus speed: 66MHz or 83MHz using MPC 106 Rev. 4.0. Memory:
Two 168 DIMM sites, support for up to 512Mb of SDRAM, 3.3V, unbuffered PC-100 DIMMS. Power:
Minimum 30W (processor speed and SDRAM size dependent) 5V 12-18A, 12V.5A Integrated power supplies: 3.3V and VCore are generated on-board, power is drawn from host system power supply. Expansion:
Optional expansion I/O card PCI 2.1 Interface 32 bit/33MHz uses IEEE 1384 (PMC) connectors Operates on secondary PCI bus isolated from host PCI Bus Possible interface cards:
FireWire 10/100 Base T Ethernet Ultra Wide SCSI Custom support for two independent PCI targets any combination of the above. System Requirements:
PC/AT, Power Macintosh 8600, 9500, 9600 Warranty:
One year parts and labor. Part Numbers:
Total mPower 4 X 400 MHz G3 with 128 MB of SDRAM - TPG3-4400-128 $3,200 Total mPower 4 X 400 MHz G4 with 128 MB of SDRAM - TPG4-4400-128 $3,900 Total mPower 4 X 500 MHz G4 with 128 MB of SDRAM - TPG4-4500-128 $4,600
Contact Sales Department for other configurations.
I have a new Tynan Thunder setup with dual Athlons
3 GB of installe memory, this board left me 5 pci slots+ an AGP Pro slot,
2 have PowerPC dual G4 PCI cards with 512 MD ram on each
1 Soundblaster Platinum PCI card
1 Matrox G400 Dual head PCI card
1 TvTuner PCI card
1 Geforce3 AGP pro card.
4 scsi drives in a raid
NOW, I run Mandrake 8.1 on the box itself, with VMware to open windows 9x/nt/2k/XP, One of PPC PCI cards boots OSX, the other to run mandrake 8.1 PPC which also runs Mac-on-Linux where I can boot Mac )S 7,8, or 9... 3 monitors one big 22" in the middle of 2 19 " on either side. X being what it is I can put any OS on any display and call it a workspace. the board includes 2 10/100 ethernet ports, one plugs into my cable modem, the other goes to a hub which allows 6 different old PC's to work as X terminals, where the apps run on the server (PPC or X86 OS) and displays on the Xterminals. walking up to an Xterminal and placing your thumb on the USB fingerprint scanner brings your workspace to that station.
All of this I can use from my Yopy with 802.11b. and the head mounted display (in case I'm ever outside)
I work over a VPN from home, my nifty new Win2K system is locked down to the point that I need to bring the box to the office for updates. Since moving to this locked down environment (win2k vs win 95) lots of other problems have come up, for example, no-one can currently change their domain password when prompted, they tell us to just reuse the same password or we'll get locked out. 4 months later, this BIG fortune 500 company is still 'working on a resolution'. Outlook will not get new mail until you switch out and back into the inbox folder, and then all the messages you got in the last hour or whenever suddnly appear and the mail notification sounds-(what nerve!!!)
after 3 years of being good and not installing unauthozied apps, now I loose realtimeish mail and our whole companies network security policies , like changing a password every 90 days cannot be enforced...Long Live the Microsoft "digital nervouse system" yeah right!
MSN is giving a $200 "shopping spree" to anyone who signs an MSN 2 years x $21.95/month MSN account at Radio shack. it's not just for getting a PC anymore, it's ANYTHING at Radio Shack.
please people, don't get a passport, and if you have one now demand your information back and cancel it.
once you're inflight:
if they don't buy it and it's legit you set if off and die.
if they do buy it and it's legit/falsebomb then you do what you want.
if they don't buy it, you loose, only wising you could set off a bomb rather than go to court/jail for saying you had one.
so, you go this route, and either die, get away with it, or go to jail. who gives a shit if you were planning on dying anyhow if your mission was a success?
I have to use Win2K at my place of work for a workstation, and the lack of display options from what I'm used to under Gnome annoys me. taskvars don't show on top like they are supposed to when you use autohide,alwaysontop....I can't set new window focus behavior, clicking 'sign in' and then having to click on the child window to focus the cursor annoys me (because I know I can set "new child windows get focus" on my Linux desktop) sure X isn't the fastest, but I'll take a cut in speed for the features it provides. (like exporting the display to another monitor/workstation) or having multiple desktops to organize my tasks.
I haven't tried Bochs, but have you tried, VMWARE? for just one really neat feature -- copy and paste from one OS to another --
the other thing that is real important for those of us that aren't CS majors, is that VMWARE is REALLY EASY to setup. then you will need some linux tools that have been ported to windows. Shouldn't be that hard to find.. where do you think they should look for this? microsoft.com/downloads? I'd love to be able to install a PCI card with a PPC platform in my x86 box and run Mac OS just like VMware will do for most x86 OSes, how'd that be for cross platform in a box? get the VMware DEMO, and decide if it's worth the price, it's real easy to setup. Although systems like BOCHs or WINE are good, there're hard to get right.
run a real OS, then boot other OS's in virtual machines using VMWare (VMWARE is available for winNT as well, I just like Linux:-) )
I've done it on my Pentium II 266 to run Win95, and it seemed to run at native speeds. If you have a Big Bad 1GHz+ machine with tons of ram, VMWare will work GREAT. You can re-partition for other OS's but you don't have to, you also have the option of storing that partition as a single file in your regular partition.
I think most people expect someone at a genius level to be quirky, but to be quirky and effective, and to be quirky and not effective are still 2 different issues.
I have long hair and a beard (not zz top, just a short beard) and on some level I feel that I must uphold an image of excellence to pave the way for others that might not want to be 'Johnny clean cut'(no I don't mean dirty vs clean I mean different vs "normal"). I'd bet others like me feel the same and as a result now society has accepted that I'm problaby real smart as a result of seeing me wear my hair long and being into computers instead of just figuring me for a dead beat stoner. If you wear a Mohawk, or have several Piercings, or just refuse to wear a TIE, do us all a favor and BE REAL GOOD AT IT.
What if all the mental energy, the rage on Slashdot message boards had been concentrated on building solid business models in enterprise computing? Just how big could Linux get?
god this just makes me so full of RAGE I just want to post about it!!! I thought slashdot was the birthplace of most of these ideas??
My plan would be to use the Linux terminal server project on a main PC stuffed into the basement or wherever, then get one of these for each room in the house that has a TV. No Harddrive needed, just keep all media/data/software on the server box.
I do support, and I have to support windows, and I'd rather not.
Windows troubleshooting is all about r&r (remove and replace) reinstall and hope, beyond that, it's not cost effective to spend hours looking for that secret registry entry, NOBODY really knows what goes on in there but MS, and they aren't telling.
I think it's great that Mozilla is cross platform, I just wish more of the support calls I field were not windows, because, by default, it's not going to work well, and ISP support line is the first call for most people who get the "explorer caused an invalid page fault in Kernel32", and they want to know why OUR crappy 'ISP?branded?IE?browserware' is messing up their system. MS Windows is a daily pain in my end user supporting ass.
I don't know but I hope so, the sooner the "big boys" (AOL, @home...) get away from IE as a platform the better. then they can move away from MSwindows!!!!
Slashdot Mirror
Linuxfromscratch.com has a project that aims to automate the process of building your own linux setup storing configuration files in XML, read the intro page they propose you could go to a website and fill out a survey type form to define your system, which would create a configuration file that could build everything correctly. It sounds to me like a huge undertaking but if distros chimed in on this and contributed the tools and expertise they have in how to install a linux system automagically, Automated Linux From scratch could become a standard tool used by anyone wanting to setup linux on anything. To go one step further and convert my /etc directory to MPXML (My Penguin XML...I made that up) well I don't know if this would be a good thing.
I meant CTRL-ALT-Arrow, not Alt-Arrow.
this way if you need more open windows you can get the enterprise server edition and spend an extra bunch of cash. ..'userfriendly'.
BTW what the hell do you need to open that many windows for? you don't even have grouping on your taskbar or the ability to create several workspaces/desktops and ALT-arrow between them like we do under Linux/Gnome. I can see your taskbar with each pixel representing a window must be real
Much like an ISP would hand you an IP, your digital box is addressable. When you change channels on a digital system, your box tells the headend "give me this channel" so it's not like you can just decode the stream coming down the pipe, digital is a 2 way deal. Many if not most cable systems are working twords all digital and will drop the analog part of the frequency as soon as they can (I think FCC is making them phase analog out slowly for some reason but I may be wrong on that).
One solution is to use some Infared controller on your pc to make the digital box do it's thing from the PC.
to see how this all works, go to www.cablemodem.com the cablelabs website. cable labs does DOCSIS certification on equipment, DOCSIS is the Protocol of cable networks and it supports Video, Data(internet) and Telephony (your phone service. if you could design a PCI card that could talk docsis, you could fake like your pc was the digital box, but I'd rather hack an IR to control the digital box.
I don't really have that setup, if I had too much money I might. I've never had too much money before.
while your at it, you ought to give Mandrake Linux a shot. I think that's the only other PPC Distro you haven't tried. I've been very please with Mandrake over here in X86 land.
the reason this is even an issue is that you're currently locked into MS tools. Along that line, the longer you wait to make the switch the harder it will become.
Take the plunge, to move to XP and THEN try to get out will be even harder. In a world without fences, who needs Gates?
http://www.totalimpact.com/G3_MP.html
.5A Integrated power supplies: 3.3V and VCore are generated on-board, power is drawn from host system power supply. Expansion:
they also make mac's that fit in a drive bay.
and from the site:
Total mPOWER Product Description
PCI: Single slot PCI card
12.2" x 5.2" PCI 2.1 Interface 32 and 64 bit
33/66MHz Host Interface using Digital 21554 PCI to PCI Bridge (data sheet attached). Processors:
PowerPC G3/G4 a.k.a. PPC 750/7400. Interposer based processor design. Boards are available with up to 4 processors. Features:
Supercaler (3 IPC: 2 Instructions + Branch) G3 Dual 32KB Instruction and Data non-blocking caches Dual MMUs Hardware Tablewalk On-chip debug suppoirt (JTAG/COP) External L2 cache interface Level 2 Cache:
1Mb of L2 "Backside Cache" per processor. Local Bus:
Local 60X bus speed: 66MHz or 83MHz using MPC 106 Rev. 4.0. Memory:
Two 168 DIMM sites, support for up to 512Mb of SDRAM, 3.3V, unbuffered PC-100 DIMMS. Power:
Minimum 30W (processor speed and SDRAM size dependent) 5V 12-18A, 12V
Optional expansion I/O card PCI 2.1 Interface 32 bit/33MHz uses IEEE 1384 (PMC) connectors Operates on secondary PCI bus isolated from host PCI Bus Possible interface cards:
FireWire 10/100 Base T Ethernet Ultra Wide SCSI Custom support for two independent PCI targets any combination of the above. System Requirements:
PC/AT, Power Macintosh 8600, 9500, 9600 Warranty:
One year parts and labor. Part Numbers:
Total mPower 4 X 400 MHz G3 with 128 MB of SDRAM - TPG3-4400-128 $3,200 Total mPower 4 X 400 MHz G4 with 128 MB of SDRAM - TPG4-4400-128 $3,900 Total mPower 4 X 500 MHz G4 with 128 MB of SDRAM - TPG4-4500-128 $4,600
Contact Sales Department for other configurations.
I have a new Tynan Thunder setup with dual Athlons
3 GB of installe memory, this board left me 5 pci slots+ an AGP Pro slot,
2 have PowerPC dual G4 PCI cards with 512 MD ram on each
1 Soundblaster Platinum PCI card
1 Matrox G400 Dual head PCI card
1 TvTuner PCI card
1 Geforce3 AGP pro card.
4 scsi drives in a raid
NOW, I run Mandrake 8.1 on the box itself, with VMware to open windows 9x/nt/2k/XP, One of PPC PCI cards boots OSX, the other to run mandrake 8.1 PPC which also runs Mac-on-Linux where I can boot Mac )S 7,8, or 9... 3 monitors one big 22" in the middle of 2 19 " on either side. X being what it is I can put any OS on any display and call it a workspace. the board includes 2 10/100 ethernet ports, one plugs into my cable modem, the other goes to a hub which allows 6 different old PC's to work as X terminals, where the apps run on the server (PPC or X86 OS) and displays on the Xterminals. walking up to an Xterminal and placing your thumb on the USB fingerprint scanner brings your workspace to that station.
All of this I can use from my Yopy with 802.11b. and the head mounted display (in case I'm ever outside)
well I can dream can't I?
I work over a VPN from home, my nifty new Win2K system is locked down to the point that I need to bring the box to the office for updates. Since moving to this locked down environment (win2k vs win 95) lots of other problems have come up, for example, no-one can currently change their domain password when prompted, they tell us to just reuse the same password or we'll get locked out. 4 months later, this BIG fortune 500 company is still 'working on a resolution'. Outlook will not get new mail until you switch out and back into the inbox folder, and then all the messages you got in the last hour or whenever suddnly appear and the mail notification sounds-(what nerve!!!)
after 3 years of being good and not installing unauthozied apps, now I loose realtimeish mail and our whole companies network security policies , like changing a password every 90 days cannot be enforced...Long Live the Microsoft "digital nervouse system" yeah right!
MSN is giving a $200 "shopping spree" to anyone who signs an MSN 2 years x $21.95/month MSN account at Radio shack. it's not just for getting a PC anymore, it's ANYTHING at Radio Shack.
please people, don't get a passport, and if you have one now demand your information back and cancel it.
once you're inflight:
if they don't buy it and it's legit you set if off and die.
if they do buy it and it's legit/falsebomb then you do what you want.
if they don't buy it, you loose, only wising you could set off a bomb rather than go to court/jail for saying you had one.
so, you go this route, and either die, get away with it, or go to jail. who gives a shit if you were planning on dying anyhow if your mission was a success?
you wish, we got you BSD guys pegged!!! you cannot beat the forces of good!!!
I have to use Win2K at my place of work for a workstation, and the lack of display options from what I'm used to under Gnome annoys me. taskvars don't show on top like they are supposed to when you use autohide,alwaysontop....I can't set new window focus behavior, clicking 'sign in' and then having to click on the child window to focus the cursor annoys me (because I know I can set "new child windows get focus" on my Linux desktop) sure X isn't the fastest, but I'll take a cut in speed for the features it provides. (like exporting the display to another monitor/workstation) or having multiple desktops to organize my tasks.
we're trying to build a continent out of them. Perhaps you can extend Linux to provide what it is you like about BeOS.
I haven't tried Bochs, but have you tried, VMWARE? for just one really neat feature -- copy and paste from one OS to another --
the other thing that is real important for those of us that aren't CS majors, is that VMWARE is REALLY EASY to setup.
then you will need some linux tools that have been ported to windows. Shouldn't be that hard to find.. where do you think they should look for this? microsoft.com/downloads? I'd love to be able to install a PCI card with a PPC platform in my x86 box and run Mac OS just like VMware will do for most x86 OSes, how'd that be for cross platform in a box?
get the VMware DEMO, and decide if it's worth the price, it's real easy to setup. Although systems like BOCHs or WINE are good, there're hard to get right.
;-)
I'd like to see it played out
run a real OS, then boot other OS's in virtual machines using VMWare (VMWARE is available for winNT as well, I just like Linux :-) )
I've done it on my Pentium II 266 to run Win95, and it seemed to run at native speeds. If you have a Big Bad 1GHz+ machine with tons of ram, VMWare will work GREAT. You can re-partition for other OS's but you don't have to, you also have the option of storing that partition as a single file in your regular partition.
You must have QuickTime 4 or later to play these movies. If you do not have QuickTime, you can download a free copy from Apple Computer.
I think most people expect someone at a genius level to be quirky, but to be quirky and effective, and to be quirky and not effective are still 2 different issues.
I have long hair and a beard (not zz top, just a short beard) and on some level I feel that I must uphold an image of excellence to pave the way for others that might not want to be 'Johnny clean cut'(no I don't mean dirty vs clean I mean different vs "normal"). I'd bet others like me feel the same and as a result now society has accepted that I'm problaby real smart as a result of seeing me wear my hair long and being into computers instead of just figuring me for a dead beat stoner. If you wear a Mohawk, or have several Piercings, or just refuse to wear a TIE, do us all a favor and BE REAL GOOD AT IT.
What if all the mental energy, the rage on Slashdot message boards had been concentrated on building solid business models in enterprise computing? Just how big could Linux get?
god this just makes me so full of RAGE I just want to post about it!!! I thought slashdot was the birthplace of most of these ideas??
My plan would be to use the Linux terminal server project on a main PC stuffed into the basement or wherever, then get one of these for each room in the house that has a TV. No Harddrive needed, just keep all media/data/software on the server box.
I do support, and I have to support windows, and I'd rather not.
Windows troubleshooting is all about r&r (remove and replace) reinstall and hope, beyond that, it's not cost effective to spend hours looking for that secret registry entry, NOBODY really knows what goes on in there but MS, and they aren't telling.
I think it's great that Mozilla is cross platform, I just wish more of the support calls I field were not windows, because, by default, it's not going to work well, and ISP support line is the first call for most people who get the "explorer caused an invalid page fault in Kernel32", and they want to know why OUR crappy 'ISP?branded?IE?browserware' is messing up their system. MS Windows is a daily pain in my end user supporting ass.
I don't know but I hope so, the sooner the "big boys" (AOL, @home...) get away from IE as a platform the better. then they can move away from MSwindows!!!!
Thanks!