Ubuntu discontinued?
Recently there are rumors that Ubuntu PPC will be discontinued.
In fact there is an IRC log about it:
Something asked a few times: Will PPC support be discontinued soon?
We will make a final decision on PPC for Feisty by the end of next week
if there is sufficient community contribution on this, then the community port can be just as good as a Canonical-supported one
we would keep the builds in place, but not block the release if things failed to build
so if people step up to unblock issues when they occur, then PPC would be on the same footing as it currently is
sabdfl, will "but ps3 is ppc" be a valid argument? (asked a few times as well)
the extra architecture costs us a lot in terms of testing bandwidth at release time, and figuring out issues like how to deal with the live CD are compicated
if SONY fund Ubuntu-on-PS3 then I guarantee it will happen :-)
I have to say I've not been pleased about it. Of course Canonical should make its own interests: that is to say, if they feel that supporting PPC is not worth it, they are doing the right thing. However, it's quite sad: there are a loto of perfectly functioning G3, G4 and G5 machines out there. Dropping support like this, seems to be the way commercial companies act.
The point is that we must realize that Canonical is a commercial company. You just can't do anything about it and accept it.
Since at the moment I run Linux mostly on a PPC machine (my notebook), PPC support becomes a key factor in chosing the right distribution. My choice was obvious: I had been using Debian for ages before Ubuntu, why not going back to Debian? Welcome home, Debian!
Debian PPC
I downloaded the DVD iso for testing. Since I'm running on PPC, the new graphical installer is still experimental. Moreover, I quite feel at home with good old Debian textual installer.
Installation was really smooth. Debian recognised all my hardware with no need for manual intervention. Of course the airport card did not work without bcm43xx-fwcutter. Unfortunately enough, I left my working ethernet cable at the university, in the office I share with some fellow students. This was just a small delay.
Quite interesting Debian recognised my display better than Ubuntu (I still don't know why, but I had to set the resolution manually or Ubuntu would not start X11). However, Debian did not preload pbbuttons (that are used for the notebook multimedia keys, volume, lcd backlight, etc).
In fact I think a noob prefers to find a system with no multimedia buttons and working graphics than vice-versa. It seems that the guys at Debian did a pretty good work. Nonetheless, I'm quite sad for the exclusion of pbbuttons: I did chose a macro-package (when installing) called 'laptop' or something like that. I think that pbbuttons should be included in the first DVD. In fact most PPC machine out there should be laptops (well, maybe not 'most', but surely a great number).
Everything else worked smoothly. I recompiled the kernel (I would like to have that backlit keyboard working, it should work even with the 2.6.18 default kernel, but maybe something useful was not compiled into it). The backlit keyboard still does not work, which is a pity, but is something I can live without. Beryl does not work too (but it didn't work with Ubuntu, either). And it should work. But that is another thing I can happily live without.
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