FixStars buys Yellow Dog Linux maker, Terra Soft Solutions

Fixstars Corporation, a pioneering company in Cell Broadband Engine™ based solutions, today announced the acquisition of substantially all the assets of Terra Soft Solutions, the world renowned developer of Yellow Dog Linux. The new subsidiary Fixstars Solutions, Inc., of San Jose, California, maintains the entire Terra Soft staff, product line....

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Yellow Dog: 6, Ubuntu: 0

So I tried to test the unofficial PPC version of Hardy Heron Ubuntu 8.04 and it would not boot or install, so instead I just installed Yellow Dog Linux 6.0 and it is a definite upgrade, fixing any issues I had in YDL5.x. I just have not figured out how to get VLC working in 6.0 yet. YDL6 is based not on Fedora, but on CentOS now. Originally the Yellow Dog was based on Red Hat, so this is the second very minor shift, since all 3 distros have the same core origins of RHEL. So now I just need to install it on my Sony PS3 now too. BTW check out Terra Soft Solutions' newly redesigned web site at http://www.TerraSoftSolutions.com/.

Looking for Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) for PPC Apple Macs and Sony PS3s?

Here is where to get either the Desktop, Server or Alternate Install CD ISOs for Apple Macintosh G3, G4 and G5 computers, including iBooks and PowerBooks, IBM OpenPower machines, Sun UltraSPARC computers, Intel Itanium computers, as well as Sony PlayStation 3 systems. Submitted since it is impossible to find from the main Ubuntu.com homepage!

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Yellow Dog Linux 6.0 Available for Free Download Today!

1 DVD ISO for Sony PS3, Apple PPC Macs, IBM System p PCs, etc. YDL v6.0 introduces a new level of multi-media support and functions with the latest Enlightenment window manager for a rich, dynamic, and powerful end user experience.

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Yellow Dog Linux 6.0 for PS3 and PPC systems ready

The following is taken from http://nstanosheck.blogspot.com/:

Version 6.0 of Yellow Dog Linux (YDL) represents a change of direction for Terra Soft Solutions. Fedora has been largely replaced by CentOS as the basis for the distribution. This should make it easier for the distributor to maintain the distribution for Power Architecture, as the CentOS development team maintain their distribution significantly longer than Fedora, which is more focused on new software.

Ultimately this about-turn changes little for YDL users, as the packages from CentOS 5.0/5.1 which form the basis of YDL 6.0 are derived from the same version of the commercial Red Hat Enterprise Linux distribution which is in turn based on Fedora Core 6. The software included in YDL 6.0 is thus only a little more recent compared to YDL 5.0, which was based on Fedora Core 5. Terra Soft Solutions has therefore in some instances included packages from more recent version of Fedora.

YDL 6.0 is suitable for PPC systems such as the Playstation 3 (PS3), Apple PowerPC G4 and G5 and IBM System p (JS2x, 510, 520, 540). In addition to GNOME, the resource-saving E17 desktop, which copes better with the PS3's modest consignment of RAM, is also installed. The distributor has also integrated the Cell SDK 3.0 for the PS3 and other systems equipped with Cell processors. Initially the new version of YDL will only be available to paying customers. It should be available to download for free in about a month.

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TerraSoft Releases YDL 6.0 for Apple PowerPC, Sony PS3, IBM, more…

Terra Soft today released Yellow Dog Linux v6.0 for Sony PS3, Apple G4/G5, and IBM System p. Built upon the CentOS foundation, a popular derivative of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), YDL v6.0 offers enterprise quality for the home user. YDL v6.0 delivers the professional quality of an enterprise level Linux distribution to a just-works desktop experience for both PS3 and Apple PowerPC. Built upon CentOS with select Fedora 7 components, YDL v6.0 integrates the "E17" desktop to provide a lean, uncluttered interface.

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Forgotten Update

The latest version of Ubuntu would not install (or even run from the Live CD), not even in video safe mode on my PowerBook G4, so maybe I'll try Fedora 8, or just stick with Yellow Dog Linux then.

Yellow Dog 5,
Ubuntu Ø,
Fedora ????????

Another Reason the Apple Macintosh is Superior…

I am going to China in a couple weeks and I do not have to buy a 220v to 110v AC adapter. Why? Because the Power adapter for my  G4 PowerBook is able to receive any AC charge from 110v to 240v! All I had to purchase was the Apple World Travel Adapter Kit so my mac can plug in to the outlets in any country in the world. This is a little known fact that makes traveling with a PowerBook so very, very convenient!

Looking for Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) for PPC Macs, IBMs and the Sony PS3?

Here is where to get either the Desktop or Alternate Install CD ISOs for Apple Macintosh G3, G4, and G5 computers, including iBooks and PowerBooks, IBM OpenPower machines, Sun UltraSPARC computers, Intel Itanium and Itanium 2 computers, as well as Sony PlayStation 3 systems. Submitted since it is about impossible to find from the main Ubuntu.com home page.

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How many days to go?

Ubuntu PowerBook?

Okay, I am going to try the unofficial PPC version of the Ubuntu 7.10 release in 2 weeks just to check it out and compare it to Yellow Dog Linux 5.02 and Fedora 8 and how each runs on my newer (2.9 years old) Apple PowerBook G4.

My conversion to Linux is 90% complete!

I am only booting up in to my Mac OS X partition to listen to my songs, watch my movies, and other DRM-filled items like some PodCasts that I got from the iTunes store. Otherwise, it is all Yellow Dog Linux, baby!

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WTF?

Yeah I moved my obsolete^* blog, "Ubuntu iBook (乌博网上图书)" to http://orthodox.blogspot.com and moved "Insane Ramblings ... and Orthodox Ecclesiology (疯狂漫谈::东正教教会学习)" to another location.

So if you are looking for "Insane Ramblings ... and Orthodox Ecclesiology (疯狂漫谈::东正教教会学习)" you will need to go to the new location of http://nstanosheck.blogspot.com.

^{*Obsolete because I now use the more superior Power Linux distro, Yellow Dog Linux, and replaced my Apple iBook with a much more powerful Apple PowerBook.}

Well that lasted about a week! LOL!

So I was starting a blog about Ubuntu on an iBook and how to get it work, right? Well not too long after, I returned to my original PPC Linux distro, Yellow Dog Linux (which is based on Red Hat's Fedora Core, except that YDL is cutting edge rather than bleeding edge!), and found it, now at 4.1.0, was much better IMO than the PPC version of Ubuntu 6.10. So I switched back. If you have a PPC iBook or Mac, I suggest the same. :-) You can with one click even set up all the shortcuts to be the same as on on Mac OS X!

So, since I am abandoning an Ubuntu iBook, please come to my new blog where I post the important stories that I have Dugg. Mostly these will be Linux stories, focusing mostly, but not exclusively on PPC Linux like Terra Soft Solutions' Yellow Dog Linux, but will also report on other Linux news like "1337" Debian — and by extension Debian's newest popular fork, Ubuntu — dumping Mozilla's Firefox web browser for stupid reasons and now using their own forked project, spitefully named IceWeasel. Some say IceWeasel is a fitting name for Debian's stereotypical developer. Me? I will be mum on the subject, choosing rather, to stay out of that flame war! :-D

So come on over to the free, open-source blog, http://nstanosheck.WordPress.com and read what I have Dugg so far! Next month ought to be especially hopping as Yellow Dog Linux 5.o is scheduled to launch in November!

But before I go, 2 tips for getting a Yellow Dog Linux iBook up to speed:

1. On the first boot-up after installing ... to get Xserver to recognize the iBook display!
a. boot YDL as single user mode. When you see "boot :" prompt, type:
linux single [hit enter]
b. when you see root command prompt "[something] #", type:
cd /usr/X11R6/bin; ./Xautoconfig [hit enter]
c. reboot the computer. Type:
reboot [hit enter]

2. Up2Date broken ... easy fix!
Up2Date was shipped with a configuration that pointed to an incorrect yum repository. To correct this:
a. Run Up2Date and uncheck the first 3 channels that point to 4.0 yum repositories.
b. Click "Continue" and up2date will find one new package --Up2Date itself.
c. Select it for it upgrade, then let up2date do it's thing.
d. Once complete, quit up2date, and the correct repository will be in place.

Getting up to speed (How I got started with Ubuntu Linux)

I first installed Linux about 2 years ago on my daughter's Apple Macintosh PowerBook 3400c. This made it more powerful and useful than running Mac OS 9.2.2. (using a hack from OS9Forever.com as only Mac OS 9.2.1 was supported officially) We used Red Hat Linux based Yellow Dog Linux 3, as it was made for Macs by Mac-lovers. It required a minimal install of Mac OS 8.6 for the bootloader extension. I learned a lot in making this work!

My daughter loved it so much that I installed Yellow Dog 4.0 on our family computer, an Apple G4 eMac that also dual booted in to Mac OS X. In my excitement about Linux I found about Ubuntu who also made a PPC Linux Distro. Seeing the CDs were free, I ordered them.

In the meantime, I figured out how to change the desktop environment from KDE to GNOME. In no time at all, I was sold on GNOME as my desktop environment of choice. (It is more Mac like than KDE)

In time I sold the eBook and got an iBook G4. It got the dual boot treatment and runs both Mac OS X 10.3 and Ubuntu Linux. I started with Ubuntu 5.04, liked it more than the then-current version of Yellow Dog and in time moved up to 5.10 and currently use 6.06.

My daughter's new (to her) tangerine clamshell iBook that she was given for Pascha runs Mac OS 9.2.2, Mac OS X 10.2.8 and Edubuntu 6.06.

I have learned a lot in Linux, thanks in part to my friend John Robert Quick, a Kubuntu user, but since I do still use Mac OS X regularly, I know that I am a noob, and just enjoy learning more about Linux each day. My daughter, at age 13 may be more of a Linux geek than me! LOL!