Filed under: OS, Software, Open Source
Ubuntu, Yellow Dog Linux for PPC updated
Dust off those old iBooks and Powerbooks and give them new life with Linux. Earlier this week, Ubuntu released version 7.04 of their desktop and server distribution, called "Feisty Fawn." While version 6 was the last officially supported version of Ubuntu for PPC, there is a community-supported PPC version of Feisty Fawn that you can download here. Ubuntu is a free (as in speech and beer) download.Also, Yellow Dog Linux version 5.0.1 for PPC was made available in the Terra Soft store earlier this month, and the download mirrors will be availabe in a few weeks. For now, you can purchase YDL from Terra Soft in one of two bundles, priced at $99.95 and $49.95 respectively.
[Via MacSlash]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Geoff Pado said 1:16PM on 4-22-2007
Uh, it's "Feisty", not "Fiesty". Glad to see a PPC version is out.
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gfahey said 1:18PM on 4-22-2007
So let's see, the choices are Ubuntu for free and YD for either $49.95 or $99.95?
Let me know if I'm missing something but, paying even $50 for Linux is beyond me. YD has never cut the mustard and Ubuntu shines in every respect. I have Feisty running on my old PC box and it is absolutely solid. No broken packages (and I have them ALL), easy-as-pie ATI/nVidia driver installs. Just stellar. I'm a distro-addict and this version of Ubuntu is hands down the best Linux out there.
Any Yellow Dog expects people to pony up for open source? I guess there are still suckers out there. I'm not one of them.
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Sälli said 1:40PM on 4-22-2007
I would like to give Ubuntu a go on my iMac, but both my keyboard and mouse are wireless versions, and I don't own USB models anymore. Is this a no-go?
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Steve Shickles said 1:47PM on 4-22-2007
Great... let the dusting begin. Will have to give this a try.
http://www.steveshickles.ws
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Kristoffer said 2:17PM on 4-22-2007
But isn't it true that there is no plugins for media related content on internet pages? I mean, is flash, quicktime, wmv, and so on supported in webpages in Ubuntu?
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Leonard Nimrod said 2:22PM on 4-22-2007
AS Geoff stated, the word is "feisty". The "i before e" rule doesn't apply here as the word is Germanic in origin, not Latin. Though, that doesn't guarantee anything with the ever changing English lexicon.
I, too, am curious about driver support for Bluetooth mouse and keyboard.
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Michael said 3:14PM on 4-22-2007
I believe that etymologically "feisty" is connected to words meaning "to break wind". I don't know whether fawns are particularly known for that, but Shuttleworth seems to have it on the brain, as the next release will be called Gusty Gibbon.
I tried YDL awhile back. It's named after Kai Staats dog. I recall that it had a graphical installer, which Ubuntu didn't have at the time. However, I didn't think much of it as a desktop operating system. I think that, although people used it on desktops, it had really been developed for servers, and I'm sure it was great for that. I recall that the US Navy bought a load of Xserves for submarines and put YDL on them.
I did buy it on CDs rather than waiting for it to be released as a download - I'm not sure I was on a fast line at the time, anyway, and I had no wish to, as it were, dodge payment. Of course, it is possible not to pay for the work Terrasoft put into the distribution. Publishing source code and still making your business pay enough to keep the coders paid, the dog in meat and biscuits, and some money in the bank, must be a problem. Mark Shuttleworth's long term plan seems to be to make money on software services - basically providing support to people with large Ubuntu installations.
Ubuntu even then was better as a desktop solution, and it's only improved since. It's probably a nice thing to do with an old Mac, so long as the Mac isn't too old. I've got the most recent version on an ex-Windows machine. The machine isn't old at all, but the OS is slow to boot - although acceptable in performance once up and running. I'm not sure how it would go on a really old Mac.
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michel said 3:29PM on 4-22-2007
>I mean, is flash, quicktime, wmv, and so on
>supported in webpages in Ubuntu?
all of that is available on ubuntu INTEL and it will work inside Mozilla Firefox or the media player Totem or whatever you prefer.
there are NO PPC linux flash. No et NEVER will be :(
for quicktime and wmv it should work (thanks to the opensource ffmpeg) (but I didn't test it)
the support is easily installed by the graphical integrated package manager.
it's legally impossible to add them in _default_ installation. for the moment.
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oswaldo said 7:29PM on 4-22-2007
There is a torrent for Ubuntu PPC 7.04 on Isohunt.
http://isohunt.com/torrents.php?ihq=ubuntu+7.04
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Rob said 10:27AM on 4-23-2007
michel stated "there are NO PPC linux flash. No et NEVER will be :( "
Not True. There is an open source Flash Player project called -- gnash. It is not bad but it is still in its infancy. There is no reason why it could not be compiled for PPC macs running Linux.
The proprietary Adobe Flash player for Linux is better but it will only run on the intel PPC's.
see http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/
Actually, I find Codec support in Linux MUCH better than in OSX or Windows. Once a codec is installed, almost all the programs can take advantage of them. This is not the case with most closed source apps in the OSX or Windows world.
Note -- to install codecs which may be illegal in some countries, you will need to add a repository. For legal reasons, these codecs are not included in the official Ubunti repos. It is not hard to add repos. You only need to do it once.
By the way the best place to go to get info on how to install packages for Ubuntu (such as Picasa, Skype, Google Earth) is http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Feisty
Note of the packages in the Linux world may be illegal in your country due to patent restrictions. (e.g. MP3) This is the standard disclaimer in the Linux world.
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尼古拉 said 10:44PM on 5-03-2007
Yellow Dog Linux is free to download as of April 28th and is FAR superior to Ubunut since YDL 4.1.
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尼古拉 said 10:45PM on 5-03-2007
Hey, I never got a password in my confirmation mail!
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尼古拉 said 10:46PM on 5-03-2007
Oh I did with that one. Go figure!
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JimTuck said 4:04PM on 5-06-2007
Yellowdog is a great resource for people that need reportable resolution for problems. They respond quickly with as much usable information as IBM used to give for the AS/400 closed platform release.
YDL actually gives value for the purchase beyond culpability. PS3 WiFi, beyond what Ubuntu or Fedora will support in any given amount of time. Boot support for all the hardware, first try, on PS3.
That said, I installed the 'free' version of YDL, a month behind. Four minutes in pup and 30 seconds editing a config file, I was as good as a paying customer.
Re: Leonard Nimrod
Bluetooth support in YDL/Fedora/Ubuntu/Debian is pretty much exactly the same per kernel version. With a 2.6.20-MH2 kernel version or newer you have the gamut of every retail BT device available to you, operating correctly, including the eight button Mighty Mouse, the eight button Razors, the seven button Microsoft and the nine button Logitech, as well as every one, two, and three logical device keyboards.
With the release kernels, you're stuck with boot-protocol support for many, but they're still 90% usable.
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