PPC Linux: The End?

- 2002.07.29

Okay folks, it's time for some democracy in action. As you probably know by now, I'm writing a new column on Low End Mac called Mac Life. Now, between this and everything else I write, as well as the odd bit of graphic design, my fine art practice and my academic research, time is becoming a bit of a rare commodity.

I don't draw any income from Cobweb Publishing for my writing on LEM for one simple reason - I don't ask for one. There are a number of reasons for this. First, I love LEM. Not only is it interesting, but it has helped me make informed purchasing decisions so many times that I consider my writing payback.

Secondly, I don't want to jeapordise a healthy Low End Mac by demanding the impossible in these lean times for dot-coms, even small ones. Apart from anything else, Cobweb is neither a hacked together enthusiast site not a media Goliath - it is a business, but more importantly, it is a livelihood for the publisher, Dan Knight.

For this reason, I can't offer LEM the time I'd like to, so I have to rationalise the writing process. Mac Life is here to stay (as long as LEM will have it), as I have a number of issues which I want to look at, and I also receive a lot of feedback about it.

So what abut PPC Linux? Well, it's been on hiatus for a while now - for a start, nothing has really happened in the Mac Linux world that has caught my attention, but also because it seems slightly less important in the scheme of things.

This is where the democracy comes in: Do you want to see PPC Linux go on? Though I can't write a weekly column, I can whack out the occasional article when something of note happens. Email me at jmwalsh@jasonwalsh.net. If there's enough support, I'll write an all new PPC Linux column in the next month and see what happens in the Linux world after that.

In the meantime, here are some PPC Linux resources on the Web.

Distros

Yellow Dog Linux

YDL have just released version 2.3 of their Mac Linux distribution, and it looks like a winner.

SuSE Linux

Popular distribution from the European Linux behemoth. The PPC distro is at version 7.3 and is looking good.

Mandrake Linux

Being a fan of all things French, I can't ignore Mandrake 8.2PPC, even though I've never used it.

MkLinux.org

Based on the same MACH microkernel as Darwin/Mac OS X, MkLinux is suitable for older NuBus machines and Performa PowerPCs.

Resources and Documentation

ResExcellence - Linux Icebox

The Linux Icebox - some nice info and tutorials.

penguinppc.org/

The official home of the Linux/PPC port. Great news site.

OSNews

General Operating System news with info on Mac OS X and Linux. From the editor of the old BeNews. Includes an interview with YDL's Dan Burcaw.

That's all folks, except to say that my own personal site has been relaunched at http://jasonwalsh.net. It's currently full of typos, but I'll fix them soon. Honest.

Best wishes,
Jason Walsh

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