Surely Gentoo delivers the best balance of the above....
Now, if stability and security are paramount I would go with Debian stable...
Here here! Finally someone who understands which distro is right for a given job.
The PS2 has been around longer... and people seem more interested in modding the xbox than emulating it, since it is so PC-compatible and thus can run cool stuff like Linux. Of course, having a hard drive helps.
> What's significant is that they are far cheaper for manufacturers to use.
Uh-huh. Where can I find a cheap manufacturer-built PPC system that would compare to one of my several $800 Athlon64 systems?
We've had microprocessors that can operate with 64-bit pointers for more than ten years now. Has 64-bit computing taken the world by storm? No. Because the number of applications that require 64-bit processing is so tiny as to be hardly worth discussing in any broad context.
No, it would have caught on earlier had it been as affordable and backwards compatible as it is now. All the systems I build for home users now use $130 Athlon64 2800s or greater. That hasn't been possible until just recently.
WRT the rest of your points, if you are starting from the premise that "all" or even "the majority" of x86 software is shitty, then sure, my previous post is bunk.
But good luck proving that assertion.
FWIW, I drive a simple moped and the only bright colors in my case come from motherboard status lights.
> all you're looking at is the cost of the whole G5 machine, which includes other goodies like a liquid cooling system and SATA and FW800, etc.
Hahaha, I cat get SATA and FW800 for much cheaper than a G5. And the AMD64 chips are quite cool running, so there is no need for watercooling unless one intends to overclock!
> All PPC's beat x86 architecture parts when it comes to price vs performance.
Name one such part costing around $150, and show me where I can buy one of them along with a compatible motherboard that has SATA and FW800.
s/x86/AMD64/
Then you will at least be stating his position accurately. Notice that he began by saying "I like x86 and PPC about equally, but I like AMD64 even more. To me AMD64 is the future..."
As for it being the "only real reason", I would ask that you kindly point out which of the reasons discussed in the numerous child posts you don't believe to be "real".
- Natively address over 4gb of memory. This is already important for servers, and shall become important for desktops in the not-so-far future.
- fully backwards compatible with x86!
- able to run x86 at native speeds!
- roughly 15% performance benefit from porting an average x86 program to AMD64 (this is easy for me to do, since I primarily use Gentoo)
- future-proof investment (x86 is now by any reasonable definition a 'legacy' architecture)
- MEMORY CONTROLLER INTEGRATED INTO THE CPU. No more northbridge middleman introducing needless latency bottlnecks. This, I should point out, is not "x86-64" specific, but rather specific to AMD's implementation. So in this small sense I _am_ a fan of AMD's chips. I can only hope Intel sees the light in time, because as things stand their offerings simply don't stack up.
As for "shifting my fandom" to the next Intel or PPC, let us examine each case seperately. The last Intel chip I was a fan of was the 800mhz FSB P4 Northwood, which I currently use as a WinXP gaming machine. It simply trounced the later (think 2800+) Athlon XPs in everything except a handful of games and office applications.
But a new PPC would have to perform _very_ well and be _very_ cheap by comparrison to outweigh it's inability to run x86 code. Given their commitment to PPC64, I seriously doubt IBM will come close to fulfiling either criteria anytime within the next 8 years, if ever.
Hey, we're back to this again. Another Mac-related story, another "why don't they port it to my favorite irrelevancy" whine.
Your opinion. The point is that there is at least SOME market for OSX on other architectures (including myself), and that we can recognize good (OSX) and bad (PPC) things when we see them. Feel free to turn a blind eye to how much PPC sucks compared to AMD64, but don't blame us for your ignorance.
You have a very curious definition of "price/performance value." You seem to think that something you get for free that desperately, desperately sucks is better than something wonderful sold for a reasonable price. I think there's a "division by zero" error in your arithmetic somewhere.
I believe he was aggregating the cost of hardware+software. But FWIW, I paid for it, and am glad to have done so.
Um. You see the irony, right? "[Brand] invented [Brand], so [Brand] and I call [Brand] [Brand]."
Way to prove the point.
I'm addressing this last because it is the least relevant issue... look dude, it's just an architecture name. Our operating system happens to call it AMD64, so that is what I choose to call it as well. I actually just read up on the subject and it seems Linus has established "x86-64" as the official kernel name. EMT64 and ia-32e of course are names that _ONLY_ Intel uses, for purely PR reasons.
I do not have brand loyalty to AMD either but I too am definately a fan of the new architecture.
Macs use a PPC processor, in case you hadn't noticed.
There are notably more hardware and software choices available for x86/Linux than for PPC/OSX.
In particular, I'm thinking of Gentoo's portage since that is what I'm the most familiar with.
I dunno about shrinkwrapped and proprietary software. But frankly, I don't care.
Azureus is ok for Linux (though I still prefer the official btlaunchmanycurses.py) but for Windows I use Shareaza as an all-in-one p2p app since it also does gnutella and edonkey.
Slashdot Mirror
Surely Gentoo delivers the best balance of the above.... Now, if stability and security are paramount I would go with Debian stable... Here here! Finally someone who understands which distro is right for a given job.
DVD+/-RW happens.
Nevermind
how do you deal with the slowdown from emerge compilation? I don't know how /he/ does it, but what is wrong with "nice -n 19 emerge foo" ?
Goodbye, XFree86.
The OS has no bearing on my question.
If it helps you comprehend the situation, lets just assume I'm going to put YellowDog on this hypothetical PPC system.
Now, where can I find something that compares to my $800 Athlon?
The PS2 has been around longer... and people seem more interested in modding the xbox than emulating it, since it is so PC-compatible and thus can run cool stuff like Linux. Of course, having a hard drive helps.
> What's significant is that they are far cheaper for manufacturers to use.
Uh-huh. Where can I find a cheap manufacturer-built PPC system that would compare to one of my several $800 Athlon64 systems?
Wow, the suckiest nintendo console ever uses a PPC?
I might have known.
It's nice that large corporations like Sony, Microsoft, and Apple have such tremendous PPC buying power.
Because of course, x86 companies like Dell and HP do not.
Oh wait...
Help fight these horrible new statistics... Install IE today!
WRT the rest of your points, if you are starting from the premise that "all" or even "the majority" of x86 software is shitty, then sure, my previous post is bunk.
But good luck proving that assertion.
FWIW, I drive a simple moped and the only bright colors in my case come from motherboard status lights.
> Current generation XBox uses X86. Where's your evidence?
...
... and that's good enough for me.
No, the fact is that Sony and Microsoft have joined with Nintendo
Well here's something for you to chew on.
I don't claim to be an expert on such things, though, so what I said was based on bits and pieces I've heard elsewhere.
I'm just not really a console guy, ya know? My computers can actually play an enormous selection of games already
> selecting the PowerPC because it gives far more bang for the buck than any other processor family.
Truly, I find this prospect fascinating. Perhaps you would deign to come and show us where to buy them?
> all you're looking at is the cost of the whole G5 machine, which includes other goodies like a liquid cooling system and SATA and FW800, etc.
Hahaha, I cat get SATA and FW800 for much cheaper than a G5. And the AMD64 chips are quite cool running, so there is no need for watercooling unless one intends to overclock!
> All PPC's beat x86 architecture parts when it comes to price vs performance.
Name one such part costing around $150, and show me where I can buy one of them along with a compatible motherboard that has SATA and FW800.
Please.
s/x86/AMD64/ Then you will at least be stating his position accurately. Notice that he began by saying "I like x86 and PPC about equally, but I like AMD64 even more. To me AMD64 is the future..." As for it being the "only real reason", I would ask that you kindly point out which of the reasons discussed in the numerous child posts you don't believe to be "real".
Here are some reasons why I am a fan of AMD64:
- Natively address over 4gb of memory. This is already important for servers, and shall become important for desktops in the not-so-far future.
- fully backwards compatible with x86!
- able to run x86 at native speeds!
- roughly 15% performance benefit from porting an average x86 program to AMD64 (this is easy for me to do, since I primarily use Gentoo)
- future-proof investment (x86 is now by any reasonable definition a 'legacy' architecture)
- MEMORY CONTROLLER INTEGRATED INTO THE CPU. No more northbridge middleman introducing needless latency bottlnecks. This, I should point out, is not "x86-64" specific, but rather specific to AMD's implementation. So in this small sense I _am_ a fan of AMD's chips. I can only hope Intel sees the light in time, because as things stand their offerings simply don't stack up.
As for "shifting my fandom" to the next Intel or PPC, let us examine each case seperately. The last Intel chip I was a fan of was the 800mhz FSB P4 Northwood, which I currently use as a WinXP gaming machine. It simply trounced the later (think 2800+) Athlon XPs in everything except a handful of games and office applications.
But a new PPC would have to perform _very_ well and be _very_ cheap by comparrison to outweigh it's inability to run x86 code. Given their commitment to PPC64, I seriously doubt IBM will come close to fulfiling either criteria anytime within the next 8 years, if ever.
Hey, we're back to this again. Another Mac-related story, another "why don't they port it to my favorite irrelevancy" whine.
Your opinion. The point is that there is at least SOME market for OSX on other architectures (including myself), and that we can recognize good (OSX) and bad (PPC) things when we see them. Feel free to turn a blind eye to how much PPC sucks compared to AMD64, but don't blame us for your ignorance.
You have a very curious definition of "price/performance value." You seem to think that something you get for free that desperately, desperately sucks is better than something wonderful sold for a reasonable price. I think there's a "division by zero" error in your arithmetic somewhere.
I believe he was aggregating the cost of hardware+software. But FWIW, I paid for it, and am glad to have done so.
Um. You see the irony, right? "[Brand] invented [Brand], so [Brand] and I call [Brand] [Brand]."
Way to prove the point.
I'm addressing this last because it is the least relevant issue... look dude, it's just an architecture name. Our operating system happens to call it AMD64, so that is what I choose to call it as well. I actually just read up on the subject and it seems Linus has established "x86-64" as the official kernel name. EMT64 and ia-32e of course are names that _ONLY_ Intel uses, for purely PR reasons.
I do not have brand loyalty to AMD either but I too am definately a fan of the new architecture.
Macs use a PPC processor, in case you hadn't noticed. There are notably more hardware and software choices available for x86/Linux than for PPC/OSX. In particular, I'm thinking of Gentoo's portage since that is what I'm the most familiar with. I dunno about shrinkwrapped and proprietary software. But frankly, I don't care.
har har
way to miss the point dude
Azureus is ok for Linux (though I still prefer the official btlaunchmanycurses.py) but for Windows I use Shareaza as an all-in-one p2p app since it also does gnutella and edonkey.
delay as in article update delay
google's crawling of wikipedia is usually at least 1 month behind.
Enjoy the delay?
I think Wikipedia needs one of these.
Perhaps Google could donate one?
Well doh, everyone knows iMacs are designed to be iDiot proof!
At least we will not have to continue reading stories counting down to when Microsoft finally ends support for it.
yeah, +5 insightful to you my hero.