Lower power consumption [LWN.net]

Lower power consumption

Posted Jun 9, 2005 3:06 UTC (Thu) by clump (subscriber, #27801)
In reply to: Lower power consumption by man_ls
Parent article: Yellow Dog Linux sticks with PowerPC

man_ls, my fellow Linux on Mac brother. I whole-heartedly agree that Mac *hardware* is what's relevant. I do feel that PPC or not, if Apple can show the same care with x86/x86-64 hardware that they show PPC you and I have nothing to worry about.

A little off-topic, I can't see any reason Mac on x86 could hurt Linux. We run on PPC and we run on x86. One less platform that another OS doesn't run on matters none to us, except possibly in terms of cheap hardware availability. The only casualty I can see would be consumer-targetted PPC.

I bought a Mac Mini *only* to run Linux. My first night of having the thing I put Debian on it. I think people need to realize Apple is more than OSX.

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Lower power consumption

Posted Jun 9, 2005 13:32 UTC (Thu) by jcm (subscriber, #18262) [Link]

I've decided I will eventually get a Mac Mini to replace my desktop, but only because it is a PowerPC system. I have no interest in buying a cheap Apple x86 box when there are a million other ones on the market.

If anything, this will benefit Linux users because they'll be less tempted to run OS X on Apple kit as a consequence of this announcement. Overall, I expect it will increase sales and be beneficial to the company - but they'll lose a few percent of customers who used to be die hard fans.

That said, deep down, I somehow want this to fail and for Steve to exit stage left again - it won't happen, but it's just so hard to understand how he can get away with such a radical change yet again.

Jon.

Lower power consumption

Posted Jun 9, 2005 13:50 UTC (Thu) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091) [Link]

A little off-topic, I can't see any reason Mac on x86 could hurt Linux.

Probably the most on-topic comment in the whole thread :)

I would say you are right, for Linux as an operating system. Some distribution may suffer (like YDL), but Linux can take on Mac OS X at any time.

Still, it's a pity that we move a step closer to processor monoculture. In the end, the worst architecture wins all; right when the underlying processor is becoming more and more irrelevant thanks to free software. Indirectly, this hurts Linux.