[ydl-gen] Slow ibook X11 (2D)

[Warren Nagourney]

Thanks for the response, Kai.

I suppose that I have a preference for Debian-based distros, which is  
no reflection on YDL. The installation of YDL was much, much more  
straightforward than the installation of Ubuntu. The Ubuntu installer  
script had numerous bugs and it took a number of tries before it  
"took". Fortunately, these bugs are well documented and a little  
searching enabled me to find a solution. After installation,  
unfortunately, one is left with an RPM-based system which can quickly  
launch one into dependence hell. Whatever one might say about Debian  
linux, its repositories are huge and just about everything one might  
want is there. Things like Scilab and even Gnustep are easily  
accessible using apt-get or Synaptic (It took me the better part of a  
day to install GNustep on a YDL machine).  The YUM repositories are  
much smaller.

I am surprised that there are so many PS3 installations.  My  
motivation in getting a PS3 was to learn Cell programming and I was  
willing to put up with some limitations. Unfortunately, the linux  
experience on a PS3 is usually very unsatisfying - slow launches,  
slow graphics, no Flash, inadequate memory, slow video (it can't even  
play a DVD cleanly in linux and is hopeless with HD video from a  
Blueray disk).

I do indeed have a strong preference for PPC - otherwise I would have  
purchased a cheap x86 machine and avoided all of the above problems.  
Unfortunately, my intellectual interest in computers prevents me from  
using such an inelegant approach - for what it is worth, my original  
interest in the Mac in 1984 was not the OS but the fact that it used  
a 68000! (I had lots of PDP11 assembly experience and was looking  
forward to a home computer with a similar architecture).  So I guess  
it is a strong aesthetic preference which keeps me on this track,  
with great personal inconvenience.

Thanks for listening.

Cheers,


Warren Nagourney

On Jan 13, 2009, at 4:13 PM, Kai Staats wrote:

> Warren,
>
>> Thanks, Derick. Yes, I am well aware of Ubuntu's lack of support of
>> PPC.  In my opinion, the Ubuntu community effort more than makes up
>> for this. In the process of installing the OS yesterday, I had a
>> number of problems and found (by several Google searches) an answer
>> for every problem in a matter of minutes. The various Ubuntu forums
>> for PPC seem to have several orders of magnitude more members than
>> the YDL forums. Also, the Debian repositories seem much more complete
>> than the default yum repositories. I wanted to install wmaker, and
>> did it quickly and immediately using apt-get in Ubuntu. When I tried
>> it using YUM (in YDL), I got no hits. Actually, this is what "fed me
>> up" and I was expecting no video acceleration when I installed Ubuntu
>> - I was delighted to be wrong in this when the OS  came up. As a PPC
>> partisan, I have always  hoped that YDL would have parity with Ubuntu
>> in these areas, but life is short...
>
> Your feedback is well received. You are correct--a substantial  
> community can
> more than compensate for the dedicated effort of a commercial  
> effort, even
> one that releases its OS to the public mirrors. This is the very  
> basis of the
> Linux movement and why it continues in such good health.
>
> While we embrace this, we are focused primarily on the Apple G5 and  
> forward
> into Cell based systems with limited effort to support the older Apple
> models. Our installer is the simplest on the market, and everything  
> works out
> of the box, but some advanced features such as acceleration have  
> not been our
> top priority this last round or two. It is a sad thing, say, for I  
> am writing
> this on a 12" G4 PB running YDL and will be sad when it dies.
>
> The PS3/YDL userbase is very large, estimated at over 100,000  
> (maybe more,
> hard to tell), but not highly active in community support nor  
> development as
> they come from a completely different background than traditional,  
> late '90s
> and early 2000s Linux users. These are mostly PS3 users who  
> discovered that
> Linux too can function on their game box, enabling a home computer.
>
> We desire to increase our active user base. We desire to build our  
> community.
>
> If you have any suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact me  
> through this
> list or [first letter of my first name][last name] at us dot  
> fixstars dot com
>
> Sincerely,
> kai
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