PPC Linux...

[TheGreatPoo]

What is everyone's views on Yellow Dog Linux ?

(please inform me if this is a repost.  I took the courtousy of performing a search but didn't find any specific threads about Yellow Dog.  I could be wrong though)

[psyjax]

quote:Originally posted by TheGreatPoo: Mac Commando:
What is everyone's views on Yellow Dog Linux ?

(please inform me if this is a repost.  I took the courtousy of performing a search but didn't find any specific threads about Yellow Dog.  I could be wrong though)

YDL is good. If you can get it up and running. It tends to be finniky when dealing with nVidia Cards. It dosn't support anything above a GeForce II ! and that's way sucky.

The new Mandrake for PPC may be a better bet. It seems to actually have better hardware support (though I havent tried it). YDL is pretty much like RedHat. And pretty much like any other linux. Only difference, is that your on a Mac.

Which brings me to my final point... why run it? OSX probably came free with your Mac, and it pretty much has all the OSS software you would ever want, yet with the simplicity, stability, and modularity of a modern OS. Not to mention the Ease of use of a Mac.

[Pissed_Macman]

I have had it installed for a while now and I can't really find a reason to use it much, but it is fun to mess around with when I have some spare time.

[TheGreatPoo]

The reason I am asking is because I cannot run OSX.     I have an OLD Mac.  It's a Performa 6360 and YDL's site says that this is the only Performa that YDL will run on.  I'm just lookin for something to mess around with and something more stable than OS 9.1.  As far as hardware support, as long as it supports my NIC card (Apple Comm slot II), video card (ATI Xclaim with 8 MB Video RAM), and my G3 Processor upgrade.  YDL's site that sometimes the G3 cards work, sometimes they don't.

If I could install OSX on my machine, believe me I would in a HURRY (I would just be afraid that it would run ridiculously slow).

Oh well.  I guess I could give them both a try (Mandrake and YDL).  The only reason I leaned more towards YDL is because (correct me if I'm wrong) it started out and has always been PPC.

Thanx for the replies!  

[Calum]

yellow dog is RH based, mandrake is based on... well, mandrake. Mandrake is based on RH too, but with open source that's not a huge issue. Both probably just use the powerpc compiled linux kernel and software (open source) compiled for that kernel on that architecture, so one's unlikely to have better performance over the other due to how long it's been going or what it's based on, but of course mdk and RH/YDL will have different design goals etc, so take your pick.

I just heard gentoo are now doing a ppc version of their linux too, also i knew i would find it if i looked, there's a debian ppc version too, looks like SuSE does one for 80 bucks too on that platform:

http://www.debian.org/ports/powerpc/
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentooppc-quickstart.xml
http://www.suse.com/us/private/products/suse_linux/ppc/index.html

of course i don't have a mac and haven't tried any of them, so if you do try some, let us know how you get on.

oh yes, there's an as yet not really used linux PPC forum you might want to start posting in at http://voidmain.is-a-geek.net/forums/viewforum.php?f=14
i know there's not much incentive since it hasn't really been used much, but that's a forum where there's good community so you'll likely find some benefit.

[ June 04, 2003: Message edited by: Calum ]

[psyjax]

A performa!

dude.. soryy to break it to you, but if you do but YDL on there you wont be running KDE or GNOME anytime soon (less you enjoy swimming in molasses), too slow, plain and simple.

[TheGreatPoo]

Thanx for the info Calum!  I will sign up on that board and start poasting there for my PPC Linux needs.  I'll also look into Mandrake PPC (since it's really the only Linux distro I have experience with).  

Psyjax:  That sux.  Do you think it will be slow than the current GUI on OS 9.1?  The speed has significantly increased since I installed the Level II cache slot 400MHz G3 upgrade processor but it still lags from time to time (especially when scrolling webpages with Mozilla).  Hopefully one of these PPC Linux distros will work with the secondary G3 processor.  If not, I can see where I'd be running into some performance problems.

[Pissed_Macman]

Performas can't even run 8.6. Takes a lifetime to open a folder.

[psyjax]

Well, I don't think the Mozilla thing is your CPUs fault, Mozilla uses a slow as balls Java rendering engine as opposed to the native QuickDraw, it's their fault. It's even sluggish on a dual G4.

That 400Mhz thing sounds great, and indeed I would expect YDL or any other Linux to run fine on that with all the bellas and wistles. That is of course if you can get it to use the upgrade card.

The other thing that may be a problem is RAM and HD space. Your HD better be at least 10 Gigs to get good performance, and I would suggest 256 of RAM for KDE. GNOME seems to require less.

Also, because of the slow System bus on a performa, I can't be sure if the CPU card will indeed provide enugh kick. But it's speed is encuraging. Go for the install, let us know how it works.

[TheGreatPoo]

My HD is definately not a problem.  It's a 60 gig 7200 Western Digital.  As far as the RAM, that may be a problem.  I have the computer Maxed out as far as RAM.  136MB is as much as I can put in it.  This computer is upgraded as far as I can take it.  Since there is absolutely nothing else I can do with the harware, I figured I'd mess with software.  

Yea, the 40MHz bus speed does kinda bottleneck the 400 MHz CPU speed but it actually runs pretty quick under OS 9.1.  I wish there was a way to use the G3 card AND the standard 603e processor.  That would be pretty PHAT.

Thankx for the help guys!  I just wanted to get some opinions.  When I install it (I'm gonna go for YDL before Mandrake or Gentoo but I will probably try all of them for kicks), I'll let ya know!  

[Calum]

re: the mozilla thing, it might be worth looking at some of the newer firebird/camino/chimera/phoenix or whatever they are called versions of mozilla. They use the gecko engine, but apart from that are built from scratch as browser only programs to be as fast as possible.

Lean and mean. I know they do versions for MacOSX and for Linuxi386 and as it is open source, i am imagining you should be able to get a version to work on your PPC Linux without too many dramas. Of course mandrake PPC probably comes with konqueror, galeon and moz1.3 anyway but...

[TheGreatPoo]

Yea, I'll probly use Konqueror.  I remember when I installed Mandrake on my 1 GHz AMD x86 machine with 128MB of RAM, Mozilla was fast but Konqueror was blazingly fast!  I hope that KDE or Gnome doesn't lag too much.  Shouldn't lag any more than the current GUI I have right?  Well, we'll just have to see.

argh.  I wish YDL had more mirrors!  It's gonna take 12 hours (at 10 kbps) to download the first disk!  Oh well.