Subject: Re: YDL 2.0 and new iBook?
From: Martin von Weissenberg (mweissen@mac.com)
Date: Tue Jul 31 2001 - 02:10:57 MDT
On 23.7.2001 10:49, "Charlie Watts" <cewatts@frontier.net> wrote:
>> How does YDL handle changing network environments? I find myself
>> jumping between two DHCP networks every day, using a modem dialup
>> sometimes and being offline every now and then.
>
> Works fine. I just ifdown and ifup the ethernet and it grabs a new DHCP
> address whether I'm at work or at home.
>
> The modem doesn't work yet. I don't think it works yet for anybody.
I actually did a test install of YDL 2.0 last week, but found so many
troublesome spots that I had to give up and reinstall OS X. I'll try to
figure out solutions for some of these over the next few weeks:
- Sleeping doesn't work properly; the screen backlight is never activated
when the computer wakes up
- When doing a ifdown/ifup dance, DHCP doesn't always get the correct
configuration; when it happens (every third time or so) the ifup command
can't be aborted (not even with kill -9), so you have to wait several
minutes for it to finish -- and then retry and just hope it doesn't screw up
again
- I couldn't figure out how to tune the backlight brightness
- Localized keyboard layout doesn't work (and I didn't feel like fixing it)
- Mouse buttons!!!
>> How well do the iBook batteries hold up under YDL? Linux is quite
>> disk intensive.
>
> Disk intensive? Heh ... hrm. Relative to what? It all depends on what you
> are doing.
>
> I don't have precise numbers, but I would say it is not quite as good as
> MacOS 9.
I'm doing a lot of writing, mostly e-mail, LaTeX and C code, and very little
graphical stuff (which is why I like Linux on the first place). The problem
seems to be that most unix tools are built for continuous disk access.
LaTeX, xdvi and gcc for example use lots of small files from a large
directory tree.
It's generally agreed that the disk cache in Linux is one of the best; maybe
it could be tweaked to have a *really* long timeout. In conjunction with a
lot of RAM and a journaling filesystem, it could extend battery life.
>> How much memory would you consider "just enough" for YDL and a
>> windowing environment (presumably Gnome 1.4)?
>
> 192 will be fine. I confess to preferring KDE to Gnome, but I think it
> would be fine with either.
>
> My biggest current complaints about it:
> Only one damn mouse button. Why, Apple, Why?
> (works fine with external meeces.)
> Modem doesn't work. (in YDL2 as shipped, or with a new kernel)
> Sound doesn't work. (ditto)
>
> In short: If you like Unix, the iBook 2 is a decent notebook to run it on.
> Light, decent battery life, great screen, ethernet works. I don't really
> care about the modem or sound, but they would sure be nice.
Yes, it turned out that 192M really is OK for YDL, but I've already ordered
a 256M chip anyway, taking the total to 320M.
The iBook 2 is really a great laptop, but YDL 2.0 doesn't really cut it yet.
OS X supports the Apple hardware better. Upgrading to 10.1 and getting more
RAM will probably make it easier to live with.
I had an opportunity to try OS X 10.1 beta for some minutes during the
weekend and liked the speed improvements, but the stability isn't there yet
-- it quickly got so knotted up that I had to reset the computer. I guess
OS X will never be as lightweight and stable as Linux, but it's really
improving fast.
Thank you very much for the information. I'll be following YDL closely, but
OS X will probably remain my main OS for some time.
--Martin
Martin von Weissenberg http://www.iki.fi/mvw +358 (0)400 314 159
"Bother," said Pooh. "Eeyore, lock phasers on the Heffalump. Piglet, meet
me in transporter room three."
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