Yellow Dog Linux
June 15th, 2009
Yellow Dog Linux is alive and kicking thanks in part to the Sony PS3.
YDL was first released in 1999 for the Mac. At the time it was groundbreaking in that it let you run Linux on a Mac. Built for the PowerPC architecture, YDL’s popularity fell with the release and success of OS X, which itself is UNIX based.
The same Power architecture behind the G3, G4 and G5 processors is also found in the PlayStation 3 and IBM’s Cell chips. The most current version of YDL, 6.1, was released in Nov. ’08 for the PS3 and G4/G5 family. Future updates are in the works.
For users looking to run Linux on their PowerPC Mac or PS3, YDL is a great (if not the only) option.
