Some of these support differences stem from product cycles and the highly competitive nature of the Linux market. A narrower range of hardware is supported with the PPC, but because the supported configurations are common ones, you're much less likely to run into device-driver problems and your installation will therefore go much more smoothly. On Intel systems, just about any box will do, and your biggest problems will likely concern device-driver support. One of the most difficult decisions vendors make regarding any OS port is which hardware to support. In fact, we found the product to be superior in some ways to SuSE's parallel offering for Intel platfoorms. Last November, SuSE released its Linux 7.0 for the PowerPC platform, a high-quality distribution that earned a score of Very Good in our testing.
The most familiar player in this market is probably IBM, which is pitching its AIX 5L as the next-generation OS for its RS/6000 customers, but vendors such as Linux giant SuSE and TerraSoft aren't letting this race go on without them.
In fact, a small but growing number of vendors are committed to supporting Linux on PowerPC (PPC) machines. Although it's easy to assume that all Linux action takes place on Intel-based machines, that is not the case. (510) 628-3380 Unfortunately, one of Linux's major marketing setbacks is that it's still considered a fringe system. + Available now (Mac OS X doesn't ship until March 24)Īpple Power Macintosh with G3/G4 CPUs, some IBM RS/6000 models, Motorola and Umax Power-PC systems (exceptions abound) + Full Linux distribution runs on a variety of PowerPC hardware This full-blown Linux OS boasts development and productivity tools, which in many cases coexist neatly with the rest of your Macintosh environment. It also saves the colossal expense of replacing your Macs with Intel-based machines to run Linux in your shop. If your Mac users want or need to get started with Linux, this is a very easy way for them to get comfortable with the new OS while keeping productive with the tools they've already mastered. But what if you want to run Linux as your primary OS or familiarize your users with the Linux system? And as Macs traditionally require less support than their Intel-based counterparts running a DOS or Windows environment, many administrators are content to leave well enough alone and the Macs up and running.
If your shop is like most others, you probably have a guerrilla band of graphic arts and design people whom you simply can't pry from their beloved Macs. IT OPERATIONS have a long history of making exceptions to the "Windows everywhere" rule case in point is the widespread use of the Apple Macintosh.
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