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SuSE Linux ppc Interview Part 3
| Mark: | Do you think that the availability of these motherboards is going to make a big difference in the amount of ppc linux users and more importantly developers? Apple branded ppc boxes are expensive. |
| Lenz: | In addition to Apple hardware, we also work on IBM RS/6000 and PreP as well. I think it depends on the price of these boards. It would be nice to have some more alternatives for PC mainboards. This was the problem with Alpha boards. |
| Mark: | I think with dual and quad versions soon available it may also help the hardware development for the kernel and such. Like for SMP support. |
| Lenz: | We also shipped some Macs to our kernel developers to make sure they get used to this platform as well. |
| Mark: | Sorry, but I had to get a Microsoft question in. With all the current turmoil Microsoft is feeling, do you see many users being pushed towards linux as a viable enterprise computing solution? From personal experience managing networks I would much rather see Linux than NT from both a user and administrative point of view. |
| Lenz: | Linux is getting closer to being ready for the enterprise, yes. But it is still far behind microsoft's market share. But we are pretty positive, that Linux will get a bigger piece of this cake in the future! That's what we are working on. SuSE is very active in adding the missing features to Linux to make it a viable alternative. Things like LVM, ReiserFS and FailSafe are the first steps. |
| Olaf: | The people have to learn it, you manage a server mostly with vi and not with the mouse ;) That's the real factor. They want to use the mouse the same as it was in NT, and this is impossible. It will be, sure. But UNIX is per design not mouse ready ;) |
| Mark: | Any comments on Linux administration vs. Windows NT? |
| Lenz: | Linux is much easier to administrate remotely, by using tools that ship with the distribution. You have to buy separate programs for NT to get the same functionality. This is a big benefit. |
| Olaf: | Yes, remote administration. No need for new Nike's ;)) |
| Lenz: | The german computer magazine c't just had an interesting survey about the downtime of web servers. The downtime of NT web servers was significantly longer on weekends :) The article is available online: http://www.heise.de/ct/english/00/08/174/ |
| Mark: | I can understand why from experience. How big is the current ppc team for SuSE? |
| Olaf: | The core team has 2 members, but we give work to the other people, like kernel hackers or xfree or yast developers. We then collect all the work of the other people for the distro. |
| Lenz: | The lowlevel part (the *real* work) is mostly done by Olaf and Uli, but the YaST2-Team is also very active making the necessary adjustments to the PPC platform. The basic installation and the bootup-procedure are the most different part. |
| Mark: | What are some of the differences we can expect to see with the new ppc release? |
| Lenz: | The upcoming SuSE Linux 6.4 PPC will be mostly identical to it's intel counterpart. 6.4 PPC will come with the same tools like YaST and YaST2. |
| Olaf: | It is much easier to install then the other distributions, this is visible for the "typical customer". |
| Mark: | Yes Olaf. YaST is unlike the typical redhat text based installer. Shades of debian's dselect. |
| Olaf: | Also, there is no need for SaX anymore. it is still there, but in needed, XF86Config is done during bootup time. But you can also switch the resolution and color depth in X. |
| Mark: | There have been rumors of other large x86 linux distros making the move towards porting to the ppc. Do you see SuSE as being a leader in this area, laying the way for the other players? |
| Olaf: | Since we are the first (big) it might be possible that we are the leaders :) |
| Lenz: | We will try to maintain our technical leadership on the PPC as well. But we owe a lot of credits to the distros that have been there before. |
| Mark: | Excellent. I think that LinuxPPC and MkLinux paved the way for a great new future for ppc linux. What do you think might lay ahead in the future of linux on the ppc chip? |
| Olaf: | That depends on how fast we can support more and recent hardware. |
| Lenz: | We hope it will be a bright future! It would be nice to have an alternative to the PC. I really like the low power consumption of the PowerPC. The perfect laptop. |
| Mark: | Last but not least...when can we expect to see a release of 6.4 and the ppc port of SuSE? |
| Lenz: | We are getting close to the release date, but there is no official shipping date yet, But it will be announced officially soon! :) |
| Mark: | Any other comments you would like to throw in? |
| Lenz: | Thanks for the interview! We hope this will spread the word about SuSE Linux PPC. We have a mailing list at suse-ppc@suse.com, subscribe via our web site (http://www.suse.de/en/support/mailinglists/index.html) |
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