[ydl-gen] Linux yellow dog manual for dummies

[Derick Centeno]

On Fri, 25 Dec 2009 11:37:34 -0800
Warren Nagourney <warren at phys.washington.edu> wrote:

> Thanks, Derick.
> 
> Although this is a YDL forum, I am afraid to say that there is no  
> comparison between any linux on PPC and OS X. The former simply  
> doesn't have the software base that I need. I used to think that it  
> would be faster than OS X, but after a few installations of linux on  
> Apple computers, I discovered that OS X wins hands down in the speed  
> area as well. I think that linux is optimized for x86 and of course  
> things like flash are only available on x86 linux (I hate flash, but  
> it unfortunately has become a standard for internet video). There
> are still some PPC optimizations in OS X apps and maybe even some
> Altivec usage (which allows Quicktime to smoothly run at 1080p on my
> PPC machines). The tasks involved in writing my book would have been  
> enormously greater if I had used linux instead of OS X.

Prior to my relationship with TSS, I tried my hand at being an Apple
developer.   Every course Apple offered (beyond the one free
introduction in programming for the Mac) were expensive. Beyond that 
you had to complete specialized seminar training at the
Apple Campus at Cupertino!! Add to that costs for travel, hotels and
accommodations, etc an individual developer like myself could not do
that. Corporations and Universities with deep budgets however are
another matter.

Within YDL however I could write and create things which ran and
explore my own technical interests occasionally sharing them as open
source projects which may or may not have interested others -- without
it costing blood money, mainly mine.

There are entertaining applications for OS X, however if you really
get into the source of how Apple did things then and does things still,
and requires that they be done, nearly any careful programmer would see
"spaghetti" code -- meaning inexplicable layers between the executing
program within Apple's operating system and how that program must
function to implement hooks into established and approved Apple tools.  

This is really the secret reason why you see no improvement in
efficiency between your version of the Mac OS and the current or recent
versions of Mac OS. The spaghetti has gotten "longer" and there aren't
enough cores or processing speed to "eat" or process it all.

The TSS team avoided the spaghetti method of programming implemented by
Microsoft and Apple.  YDL and other TSS products are faster because all
that junk -- that spaghetti -- doesn't exist.

Although nearly everyone wants to have the functionality without the
spaghetti, it isn't easy to do as Apple and Microsoft have proven by
regularly losing their products into baffling code which not only
wastes computer cycles, but also costs consumers money by costing time.
Straightforward and intentionally well designed programming helps any
processor, but with all that junk removed PowerPC systems running YDL
have no peer -- period. 

Consider also that it is rather sad that even all the work Apple has
done, in professional settings where operating systems are tested
yearly for efficient processing and security -- Linux comes in First,
Windows comes second and the Mac sometimes doesn't come in third place
because other operating systems are stronger.  These tests have
been going on for at least 10+ years!!  No Apple operating system
has ever achieved second place!!  Allow me to be clear about this, there
is no point on working on any computer whose data can be compromised via
theft by breeches in wireless or other network, or system access
vulnerabilities. Why would anyone risk it? Yet people do all the time
because they are lulled into forgetting how vulnerable their data is as
well as intentionally misdirected regarding how strong the operating
system they choose to use actually is regarding protecting their
personal and business work.  You would think that many would understand
by this date the threat of theft of their work and their personal and
work related identities, but no.  

That however is a whole different problem.  In consideration of
the talent which was at Apple or Microsoft, they could and should have
done much, much better. 

Spaghetti is fine for humans to consume as an enjoyable meal together
with meat balls, sauces, etc. -- it is not intended for processors which
would have to follow Moore's Law advanced infinitely every microsecond
to successfully digest all the spaghetti humans can generate just by
sheer imagination.


=========

Refranes/Popular sayings:
The Taino say:No hay mal que por bien no venga.
There is no evil out of which good cannot blossom.
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