Sure, Linux is just another "free" option, but so is Darwin.
When I was running an old PowerBook 3400, I loaded LinuxPPC onto a Jaz 2GB disk and booted from that a few times just to say "Yeah, I had a UNIX-like OS running on it." Aside from that, it was just a toy.
Right now, there isn't a whole lot that Linux for PowerPC can do that OS X cannot do. Maybe these Linuxes can run on a wider variety of machines (read: non-G3 new-world ROM boxen), but aside from that, I really don't see any benefits.
Still, it is nice to see that companies still believe in and support the PowerPC archetecture as a whole and don't mind devoting resources to it.
Before I started taking all of the CS classes I'm in now, I couldn't understand why Adobe was so slow in getting out a native OS X version of Photoshop. However, I've come to these conclusions:
1. Carbonizing seemed easy, at first. When they demoed their "Carbonized" version of PS back in the day, there was really nothing to it. All they had to do was modify the non-complying API calls. However, since OS X's paradigm shifted so much, they also had to remake a lot of the interface to conform and work with Aqua. That is a very difficult proposition when you have a program with a code base such as PS.
2. Their apps also seem to have a lot of legacy 68k-centric code. While I'm certainly not an expert in OS X programming, I'm sure that it doesn't help to have 68k-based instructions when you're trying to have your program run on a modern PPC-based operating system with a new set of APIs. It just doesn't make things easy.
3. Trying to develop Carbonized apps is a difficult proposition because the API isn't set in stone. When the "Carbonization is easy" thing was first floated, most folks probably didn't think it was going to be still under development. A lot of people have likened it to a moving target. I would agree from my point of view, because if you don't know what is going to change from one CarbonLib revision to another, life becomes a bitch
There are probably many inaccuracies in this posting, but from my point of view, Adobe isn't completely to blame. Right now, I'm just keeping my fingers crossed and hope it was worth the wait.
There are sadly few drives that could even come close to saturating the bandwidth of the buses they are connected to. IDE/ATA is a respectable bus in that it is low-cost with a pretty good price point.
However, the designers of the standard must not have been thinking straight when ironing everything out. I mean, 28 bits? Why not 32? I mean, there could have been a good reason for it, like ECC or parity bits when used with a 32 bit total addressing space. I still say that they should have used more space sooner. I doubt we'll see 48 bits being used effectively for a while, but then again, who thought I'd be using 1024 MB of RAM in my PowerBook 10 years ago?
I'm not sure what kind of limitations FireWire has addressing-wise, but I have a lil' 40 GB Maxtor running @ 5400 RPM, and it's a great unit. I'm thinking of buying a bigger FireWire disk, such as a 160 GB drive, but I don't have any use for SCSI any longer. While most Macs came with SCSI for a very long time, the flavor included ran at 5 MB/sec (yes, megaBYTE) which is 1/10 the speed of FireWire.
As for USB2, I'd say it is pretty much worthless. Being a machine dependent bus, it is a lot less effective than FireWire which can do device-to-device transfers.
(It may be long and rambling, but there might be something useful for you, Mr and Mrs. Mod! Hehe.:)
I heard that some of the iMacs were actually stopped at customs entry points for inspection. Maybe the FDA, who has jurisdiction over lasers, is stopping these Macintoshes for inspection. This happened last year with the PowerBook G4 optical drives. (Yes, they were concealed weapons)
I don't know this is an honest-to-God fact. It is possible, however.
Is this really a surprise? God forbid Microsoft ever tried to make medical equipment.
Predators are very interesting craft indeed...
on
Robots Go To War
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· Score: 1
My uncle worked on the development and testing of the Predators at the Point Mugu NAS in California, and I was able to do a video report on some of the more public aspects of the technology used. That was in 1995, when they were first deployed in August of that year over Albania and other nations in the Adriatic to survey military targets. It can see a license plate from 10k feet. As of the time I made my report (I was in 8th grade at the time), the Predator flew over 50 missions over Bosnia and all 3 craft that were used were lost. Its not like the military really has anything to worry about, since the technology has already been compromised.
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Sure, Linux is just another "free" option, but so is Darwin.
When I was running an old PowerBook 3400, I loaded LinuxPPC onto a Jaz 2GB disk and booted from that a few times just to say "Yeah, I had a UNIX-like OS running on it." Aside from that, it was just a toy.
Right now, there isn't a whole lot that Linux for PowerPC can do that OS X cannot do. Maybe these Linuxes can run on a wider variety of machines (read: non-G3 new-world ROM boxen), but aside from that, I really don't see any benefits.
Still, it is nice to see that companies still believe in and support the PowerPC archetecture as a whole and don't mind devoting resources to it.
Before I started taking all of the CS classes I'm in now, I couldn't understand why Adobe was so slow in getting out a native OS X version of Photoshop. However, I've come to these conclusions:
1. Carbonizing seemed easy, at first. When they demoed their "Carbonized" version of PS back in the day, there was really nothing to it. All they had to do was modify the non-complying API calls. However, since OS X's paradigm shifted so much, they also had to remake a lot of the interface to conform and work with Aqua. That is a very difficult proposition when you have a program with a code base such as PS.
2. Their apps also seem to have a lot of legacy 68k-centric code. While I'm certainly not an expert in OS X programming, I'm sure that it doesn't help to have 68k-based instructions when you're trying to have your program run on a modern PPC-based operating system with a new set of APIs. It just doesn't make things easy.
3. Trying to develop Carbonized apps is a difficult proposition because the API isn't set in stone. When the "Carbonization is easy" thing was first floated, most folks probably didn't think it was going to be still under development. A lot of people have likened it to a moving target. I would agree from my point of view, because if you don't know what is going to change from one CarbonLib revision to another, life becomes a bitch
There are probably many inaccuracies in this posting, but from my point of view, Adobe isn't completely to blame. Right now, I'm just keeping my fingers crossed and hope it was worth the wait.
There are sadly few drives that could even come close to saturating the bandwidth of the buses they are connected to. IDE/ATA is a respectable bus in that it is low-cost with a pretty good price point.
:)
However, the designers of the standard must not have been thinking straight when ironing everything out. I mean, 28 bits? Why not 32? I mean, there could have been a good reason for it, like ECC or parity bits when used with a 32 bit total addressing space. I still say that they should have used more space sooner. I doubt we'll see 48 bits being used effectively for a while, but then again, who thought I'd be using 1024 MB of RAM in my PowerBook 10 years ago?
I'm not sure what kind of limitations FireWire has addressing-wise, but I have a lil' 40 GB Maxtor running @ 5400 RPM, and it's a great unit. I'm thinking of buying a bigger FireWire disk, such as a 160 GB drive, but I don't have any use for SCSI any longer. While most Macs came with SCSI for a very long time, the flavor included ran at 5 MB/sec (yes, megaBYTE) which is 1/10 the speed of FireWire.
As for USB2, I'd say it is pretty much worthless. Being a machine dependent bus, it is a lot less effective than FireWire which can do device-to-device transfers.
(It may be long and rambling, but there might be something useful for you, Mr and Mrs. Mod! Hehe.
I heard that some of the iMacs were actually stopped at customs entry points for inspection. Maybe the FDA, who has jurisdiction over lasers, is stopping these Macintoshes for inspection. This happened last year with the PowerBook G4 optical drives. (Yes, they were concealed weapons)
I don't know this is an honest-to-God fact. It is possible, however.
Is this really a surprise? God forbid Microsoft ever tried to make medical equipment.
My uncle worked on the development and testing of the Predators at the Point Mugu NAS in California, and I was able to do a video report on some of the more public aspects of the technology used. That was in 1995, when they were first deployed in August of that year over Albania and other nations in the Adriatic to survey military targets. It can see a license plate from 10k feet. As of the time I made my report (I was in 8th grade at the time), the Predator flew over 50 missions over Bosnia and all 3 craft that were used were lost. Its not like the military really has anything to worry about, since the technology has already been compromised.