16 Nov
2001
16 Nov
'01
10:46 a.m.
buying MAC hardware, either. Is there a cheap and
easy way to use NetBSD
without a major outlay and majof effort? I'd bet not. I've really never seen
anything involving hardware that could be done cheaply AND easily on a MAC.
Most things seem to be both insanely difficult and excruciatingly costly.
NetBSD on mac68k is the most mature Unix for that architecture. However, it
is still not a smooth install. There's a few workarounds that you have to
"just know". It is supported on the P630, but you need to have a real '040
in it (the LC040 is plagued with difficulties yet). Once it is running, it
is nice and stable, but I run it on a IIci which is the NetBSD/mac68k
'typical box'.
Linux/mac68k in its various forms is still quite flaky and uneven in its
support.
Modern Power Macs have standard IDE, USB and FireWire ports, so most things
can be done for about the same price as a PC. There is still a driver gap
though for some peripherals. Nevertheless, the old dogma about Macs doing
half as much for twice the price is definitely no longer true.
--
----------------------------- personal page: http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ --
Cameron Kaiser, Point Loma Nazarene University * ckaiser(a)stockholm.ptloma.edu
-- We only pretend to have standards. -- Unknown producer, ABC-TV -------------