Here is a review of Yellow Dog Linux 3.0 for the Mac accompanied by a number of screenshots.
Yellow Dog Linux 3 Review
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
The reviewers final score calculation involved some powerful magic 😉
I thought that looked a bit fishy, but was too lazy to actually check. I just did (boredom took over lazyness), 7.33, but hey it had 10/10 for support, so lets give it a 9! eheh
I wonder how slow that box was feeling with 3 MoL windows open though, poor old mac.
In the box with the scores, he says the the Final score is the overall impression rather than a composition of the other scores. Aside from that, he should be giving a 10 for value and software pack at least. I would says a few thousand (and some very useful) programs for 25$ is a pretty good deal and a pretty good software pack.
I thought long and hard about my scores. The software choice was about average, but I didn’t know if I should have added the fact that it was all ported (or at least I suppose so). The value is high, but I tried to take into account how you can’t get this one for free download (or at least not that I’m aware of). They were hard choices.
The final score is a total impression though… and not an average. It confuses everyone. I think that’s why I like the system. 🙂
Oh yes, the link is missing some variables.
http://www.elitebastards.com/page.php?pageid=1488&head=1&comments=1
I guess somebody went to remove the session stuff and took the rest with it.
But …
“If you’re all into the Apple advantage of easier use of your computer, you had better stay away from this, because you might actually have to think.”
Actually, I love to think. Merleu-Ponty is my favorite philosopher but I also like Kirkegaard. But I’d much rather devote my cognitive energies to my various projects and not to just making the damn computer work so that I can get to work on my various projects.
My G4 works for me, I don’t work for my G4.
“The external Zoom 56k modem was only identified as “modem0″. Having dealt with with PC modems before, I found this just too easy. Sure enough though, I was able to connect with no problem and start my browsing. There were a couple of choices for browsing: KDS’s integrated browser, Konqueror or Mozilla. Both worked as they should. No big deal here. ”
Which is kind of the way a computer’s OS should be. Things working correctly right off the bat isn’t a big deal, in fact getting your modem to detect and connect should never be a big deal. The only thing that should ever be a big deal about the i’net is finding (or creating) an utterly bastard groovy webpage.
“There was one real problem that kept nagging me as I tried to transfer files from the floppy drive on the Mac. For one thing, the super smart Mac designers thought it would be cool to have no button on the floppy. That way, it would look cool, right? Well, since there is no software code to spit the floppy out for linux,”
Now this is a really legit complaint. It’s a pretty glaring oversite on YDL’s part not to include an auto-eject right click or F11 option or write a bit of code making the eject key on the keyboard work.
“I also had problems formatting disks or even seeing them at first because the floppy drive wasn’t configured. With help from the excellent Troy Vitullo at Terra Soft, I was able to solve that problem quickly. I had to tweak a few extra things, but it wasn’t a big deal. I ended up using this line added to the /etc/fstab config file.”
This is also another oversite on YDL’s part. It should ship to automount every drive it finds in a machine upon boot up. If it had been me, I would’ve thought the floppy died and I’d’ve been cracking the case to swap in a new drive.
Silly me, I expect the drives in any machine I use to detect and work, and the only reason they shouldn’t do either is because they’ve died on me.
“If you’re all into the Apple advantage of easier use of your computer, you had better stay away from this, because you might actually have to think.”
Yes, I’d rather devote my brain’s creative energies towards things like Reason and Painter, rather than trying to figure out how to make Mozilla start MPlayer when I download an AVI.
I hate to sound trollish, but honestly I see no use for a G5-optimized YDL until Apple releases the PPC970-based Xserve. Who in their right mind would purchase a G5 PowerMac for the purpose of running Linux?
On my iBook 500, the eject key works in YDL 3.0.
My only problem with YDL is how to get Kismet to work. The recompiled airport driver with monitor support refuses to install.
Other than that hinderance, its been great.
I was being sarcastic. Thanks for your input though. I did find it useful for this old Mac though. Owners of newer Macs would have a hard time finding a reason to use this unless they had an exact use for it. As an OS, it wouldn’t offer the great (IMO) Apple software, although you could use the Apple stuff from within linux. It’s a mixed bag though. I find most Mac users are less tweak geekish and more “use my computer” geekish. Whatever you’re used to though.
If I had the money i would buy a G5 for running Linux
Eugenia,
I am from an academic insti in india and behind firewall. If you post this kind of reviews at sites tht have some objectionable names ( http://www.elitebastards.com), the insti will block. Ofcourse, its my problem. But you can also consider. Bcoz i am behind firewall and such words are filtered by our proxy.
I hope you understand wht i meant. I know tht you write and post news related to OS’s. But do please consider before posting this kind of reviews.