Re: iMac and YellowDogLinux


Dan Burcaw (dburcaw@terraplex.com)
Tue, 9 Mar 1999 18:19:38 -0700 (MST)


Evan,

> It was made very clear from another message of your that you are sharing a
> code base with LinuxPPC Inc. but not deriving work from them... that is
> great.

Yes, similar code base means compatibility..

> Installing utilities that are unique to your product are key and I am glad
> you are doing it. I am not sure how much of a "full time" thing YDL is to
> you guys (ie you do Web Design and stuff too, correct?) but hopefully you
> guys can compete well with LinuxPPC (who are awfully late with R5) and
> develop alot of CoolStuff(tm).

Yellow Dog is our focus. We do do web design, video production, etc.. but
that's really the Terra Firma Design part.. Terra Soft Solutions IS Yellow
Dog Linux.. and we're working on it all the time :)

R5 is late because the development community feels the code base isn't yet
ready. I work with these developers -- submitting patches, making changes,
etc.. Champion Server release has also been pushed back for similar
reasons. We felt it was important to get Glibc 2.1 and kernel 2.2 on the
CDROM.. these milestones have been met so we'll be releasing very soon.

> As for feedback on your products:
>
> For GoneHome:
>
> Do what Corel is doing I think. Get the interface up there and clean.
> Even if that means dealing with KDE or Gnome. Get some default apps up and
> on the Desktop. I am not sure how much you guys are into "Paradigm
> Shifting" and alot of Linux users hate the Windows-type GUI paradigm, but I
> think that right now, following the lead of Windows and Mac will sell units.

Yes.. the desktop is important. At this point I think GNOME and KDE will
both be included... the user will have complete control of which desktop
they want to use.

> Get an ICQ client of some sort up there.... something that everyone uses...
> There are heaps of options if you don't want to develop your own out there,
> but having it there and ready to go is important.

Ya.. there are some good ICQ clients out there.. we'll make sure one or
more of them will appear on the CD.

> Really, anything that covers what 98% of homeusers/students do 98% of the
> time is cool. If anyone wants to go deeper, they will already know how to
> do it ;).
>
> For ChampionServer:
>
> I have less of a clue here, but include all the bread and butter stuff with
> all the internet services that people need. If you guys can create some
> applets that will help people work better, or just have a certain cool
> factor, all that stuff is cool. Maybe you would like to have a go at
> creating your own shell (even tho bash rocks).

Bash and Zsh are too cool :)
But ya.. things which will assist administrators, etc..

> Keep up ther rackmounting stuff. Stuff like that. Do everything that
> needs to be done to make Macs viable in the enterprise. MacOS sucks and so
> is Apple's sttitude to high end computing at the moment. So sell their
> boxes and do what you need to do to keep up with supercomputing with YDL,
> figure out SMP with the G3s (if physically possible) and stuff like that.
> Apple is almost letting you into high-end Mac space.

I agree.. I'd love to see SMP G3s running YDL.

> Do up a Pro Workstation (movie editing and stuff) model sorta like the SGI
> VisualStation stuff. Not for average joes, but you could sell alot of them
> to Movie Production companies and Special effects companies....

Definatly.. we've discussed this sort of thing.. 3d rendering software
too.

> For general stuff:
>
> Offer student pricing, stay in the headlines (Redhat/Intel has all the
> mindshare at the moment and LinuxPPC is doing a pitiful job at "p1mping" G3
> hardware for Linux in the news) and keep up the good website.

Hehe.. you are very correct. Red Hat does have all the mindshare. Thing
is, we think the G3 is a very viable solution.. if we continue doing our
job others will see this as well..

One thing I want to see, if everytime someone writes software for Linux
(commercial, or other) it has a PPC binary as well.

> Thanks for your time, Dan
> Evan Read
>

Dan

Terra Firma Design & Terra Soft Solutions, Inc.

 voice (970) 416-9821 in Fort Collins
 email dburcaw@terraplex.com
 website http://www.terraplex.com/



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