Terra Soft Solutions, Inc., leading developer of integrated PowerPC Linux solutions with Yellow Dog Linux, today announced preliminary support for Apple’s Power Mac G5. The Gentoo guys also released a Live CD with 2.6 kernel and some support for the G5 too.
Yellow Dog Linux, Gentoo Linux Get Preliminary G5 Support
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Eugenia Loli
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I think this is good, but why can’t they get support for the 17-inch powerbook nailed down? I bought YDL and it would not install and support from TerraSoft was OK but they had never seen the issue before and it meant several hacks , even after they claim support for it.
Maybe I was just frustrated that day…
will it be now based off of Fedora?
or will they just fork at redhat 9 and backport stuff?
or am i completely wrong on all accounts?
>>will it be now based off of Fedora?
This is an excellent question! Does anyone know?
found the following quote (below) from redhat mailing list, posted by terrasoft employee. it sure sounds there will be a version of fedora for macs, and yellowdog for macs(still). sounds like there will be cooperation. i wouldn’t be surprised if yellowdog borrowed most of ppc fedora, and tweaked it to make sure that PPC issues are ironed out. this is all speculation btw:
the quote:
It’s a good point. My conclusion is that we’ll tend to send things
upstream as much as possible and that Fedora ought to help make our job
easier. That said, supporting us is really vital to continued, active,
and continuous improvement of the PPC Linux platform. It is *not* a
lucrative business, so literally every set of CD helps. Even if you want
to run “stock” Fedora on your iBook instead of YDL, sending a few bucks
our way, certainly helps keep things rolling.
Regards,
Dan
i’ve used yellow dog on several macs. And if I get the ibook i’ve been eyeballing….i’ll definitely dual boot with YDL.
the guys at YDL eat, breath and sleep linux on ppc, and i’ve been impressed with their efforts.
i’m very comfortable with redhat based distro, and while i’d love to experiment with os-x, for admin duties, i’ll be in ydl.
and yes, i have sat down for long extended periods at an os-x workstation and have been ssh’d into my redhat/debian servers.
as pretty as os-x is..it just doesn’t jive with my muscle memory.
of course if i need to author a DVD…OS X will be immediately boot into!
Is there a PPC Linux on MAC emulator? I would love to run Yellow Dog inside OSX. I know there is a MAC on Linux. I have run X86 redhat in my Virtual PC, but it is too slow.
Short answer: not that I know.
Short question: Why? You’ve got a UNIX OS, native X, and a whole bunch of ports (through Fink et al).
Most people will remember that there was an earlier announcement of G5 support for Gentoo a few months back, and would wonder why they’re announcing again. The reason is that the original message from a Gentoo user was a complete lie, and the Gentoo people kept it up on their forums without so much as an official statement in order not to lose the publicity.
What other distribution would tolerate this?
Short question: Why? You’ve got a UNIX OS, native X, and a whole bunch of ports (through Fink et al).
bad question. linux is huge among techies. to have ZERO experience is not a good thing.
i cut my teeth on quadra 950s in 1993, i’ve used and supported every classic mac os since then.
i’m an mcse, and linux+ certified. I run mostly x86 hardware at the house. currently migrating all redhat servers that i support, to debian.
i still do mac/windows consulting on the side, and i play with os-x often.
if i got myself a snazzy new ibook…YOU tell me why i wouldn’t want to run linux.
it makes perfect sense to me.
maybe you have a fanatacism for a single operating system or an unwarranted esteem of that operating system.
maybe you just don’t know any better.
maybe i got it all wrong and you just like running linux separately on dedicated x86 hardware.
did i answer your question?
If you have a G5, most likely bought very expensively, why would you wanna switch to Linux from OS X?
Not trying to start a war here or anything, but isn’t OS X simply just a brilliant OS? Wouldn’t you go for x86 if you wanted to run Linux?
I just downloaded the ISO and just had my first Linux boot on my G5. Obviously the Linux guys haven’t yet figured out the parameters Apple uses in OSX to control the 9 fans inside the case. Linux just sets them to full speed, which makes the otherwise quiet case sound like a vacuum cleaner! And no, this is _not_ an exaggeration! You can also feel the air gushing out the back of the machine.
In a few minutes I’ll start backing up my data and will install Gentoo on my G5 just for the fun of it. However I don’t consider it useful yet because of the loud noise the fans make at full throttle.
<quote>Most people will remember that there was an earlier announcement of G5 support for Gentoo a few months back, and would wonder why they’re announcing again. The reason is that the original message from a Gentoo user was a complete lie, and the Gentoo people kept it up on their forums without so much as an official statement in order not to lose the publicity.</quote>
The user who claimed he had installed Gentoo on his G5 on the Gentoo forums
a) wanted to get some cheap publicity for his new gentoo-forked distribution (see latest comments about Oubipaws and his G5 adventure on http://dux.sunsite.dk)
see the thread: http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=79513&highlight=oubipaws
b) left it unclear whether what he claimed was true until he had posted it to enough newsites; it should be noted that Oubipaws then posted a comment stating gentoo developers mistreated him by asking for dmesg and lspci on his G5 linux, and would therefore release his G5 port as a new distro called “Dux Linux”
pvdabeel (the guy that created the G5 livecd now) also posted immediately that he was very skeptic about whether what Oubipaws said was true, after checking with benh. Next time try to a bit more accurate, before calling developers liars.
I’ve been a Macintosh system administrator for almost a decade now. Come hell or high water, I’ve followed Apple… I followed them from OS 7 to OS 8 despite the protestations of some of my more stringent users, I’ve followed them from OS 8 to OS 9, and most importantly, I followed them from OS 9 to OS X.
Consequently, you might think of my view of Linux on Mac as a little biased. I can see a use for it though; primarily in the scientific computing realm. I could certainly see someone purchasing a G5 or a small cluster of them and using it in conjunction with Linux for a scientific computing task. Of course, I’ve heard Virginia Tech’s “Big Mac” G5 cluster will be running OS X, which should give pause to consider whether there’s any benefit to using Linux instead of OS X at all. I’d also be curious whether IBM’s XL compilers for Linux on pSeries would function on a G5 at all? Otherwise, what good Fortran compilers are there for Linux on PPC?
But all that aside, I’d like to respond to the comments made by “Dan” at Yellow Dog Linux. It sounds as if they’re asking for handouts from Fedora users. I understand YDL has made many important contributions to the Linux/PPC community, but with Fedora supporting a Macintosh branch now, is there really any need for Yellow Dog Linux? What differences will there actually be between Fedora’s Macintosh branch and Yellow Dog Linux now, since Fedora plans to fully support the Macintosh?
Personally, I think we’re seeing the beginning of the decline of Linux on the Macintosh. As OS X grows faster and more robust, the need for Linux on Macintosh is diminished, as OS X is POSIX compatible and now comes with a robust X server, which means any Linux applications can be run on OS X, in addition to an assortment of professional and productivity applications, most notably Microsoft Office. There’s also a large number of GUI management applications available for OS X server which greatly ease the life of a system administrator. I forsee those currently doing scientific computing with Linux on Macintosh systems eventually seeing the light, and giving up the headache that is Linux system administration for the ease and simplicity of OS X.
…when you can already compile almost any linux app to run in OSX? Heck, since last year I’ve had a full KDE office suite running within the X11 environment in OSX, without needing useless dualbooting or double installs. Just download the source code for your gtk+ app, gnome app, X11 app, etc etc and compile it under OSX. Works just fine.. (and even better in Pather). In fact, you can startx directly from the CLI by logging in as >console and launching the X environment from there (but then you’ll lose the hardware acceleration that OSX gives the X11 env)
I’d also be curious whether IBM’s XL compilers for Linux on pSeries would function on a G5 at all? Otherwise, what good Fortran compilers are there for Linux on PPC?
Possibly. Keep in mind that the kernel is operating in 32-bit mode for the time being (YDL claims 64-bit support is “just around the corner”, we’ll see if they deliver…) so it probably won’t support the 64-bit ABI.
Absoft makes PPC Fortran compilers for both Linux and OS X. The IBM XL compilers produce significantly better code, however, at least on the OS X side.
Why do you need Linux when you can already compile almost any linux app to run in OSX?
I think we’ll see Linux relegated to a hobby OS on PPC, used primarily on lower end systems that don’t support OS X. It would be quite handy if you wanted to turn an old all-in-one into an IRC/web browsing terminal.
As for scientific computing, this is an area Apple seems to be pursuing vigorously. They’ve recently given a presentation on the G5 to my department, who is a large consumer of computing resources, and at least one of the groups here has purchased over 20 G5 systems for clustering. I think we’ll see the Mac with MacOS X being pushed as a scientific computing platform now, and together with the G5 and in conjunction with software like XGrid it’s certainly looking like a nice system to fit that role.