"Austin G. Swinney" wrote:
>
> Subject: Apples and Linux Distributions for Apples
>
> I am familiar with the troubles of putting Linux on some PC hardware.
> In a PC it could be the video card isn't supported, or it has a
> WINmodem. There are specific questions during the installation about
> chipsets and whatever... Laptop PC's I have never tried, but I heard
> Linux is even more difficult in that arena. Basically from a Compaq to a
> Dell to the local computer shop build-it-yourself--you never know what
> you are going to get, but that it will function like a PC.
>
> Apples on the other hand, I know little about. I am guessing that if
> Apple makes an Apple then it is an Apple. One can know what to expect
> when they buy an Apple. And with this in mind, Linux distributions like
> Yellow Dog (on Slashdot today) for the G3, will anticipate the finite
> combinations of hardware likely to be encountered on an Apple. IF Apple
> offered such a controlled environment, one could expect to buy a G3 and
> have Yellow Dog Linux install and configure with such tailored precision
> as a PC person would expect from an out of the box Linux PC (like a VAR
> station).
>
> What do we know about this?
>
> Note: http://www.yellowdoglinux.com/
>
> Austin
>
Unfortunately, despite a smaller variety of hardware, there are also
fewer people working on Linux PPC. There is also a greater variety of
older Macs than PCs that are poorly to not supported at all (Linux-wise
that is). Laptop Macs are virtually unsupported. Some hardware is the
same for PCs as Macs, which may be helpful. I've heard the PPC Linux
lags behind the i386 development substantially, but is catching up.
Many of the same problems that exist for hardware support for PCs exist
for Macs (ie. obsolete hardware with little documentation and vendors
refusing to release product specs). From what I've read on the 68k
Linux projects, very little documentation has been made available on the
hardware configurations of the older Macs and that is what is delaying
ports. Apple is a little more helpful with the G3s (and IMacs)
hardware, since they probably figure they can profit from it (they don't
get much out of supporting old machines). Bottom line- a G3 will
probably be a great platform real soon, but it will still be much more
expensive than an i386 since Apple killed off their clone market.
Whether or not you can't get just as good or better performance for the
price with a PC is the real question.
My $.02,
Matt Ray
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