Software > Operating Systems and Porting
FreeBSD - Unfortunately not very TALOS-focused
Raion:
--- Quote from: q66 on November 30, 2019, 05:41:00 pm ---that's kind of a bad attitude to have, considering it's largely thanks to those older systems that the ppc desktop stack is in as good of a shape as it is (IBM doesn't give a shit about anything but headless server/HPC stuff) as well as that support for the platform exists on minority OSes like freebsd at all
besides, i see no reason to kill off older hardware that still serves its purpose perfectly fine for many people - doing otherwise just reeks of planned obsolescence
there's a sizeable community of people running older ppc machines who often couldn't afford buying a blackbird or whatever in the first place
--- End quote ---
It's mostly a situation where you either hobble the new hardware, split your time between two incompatible ABIs/platforms, or you cut your losses and take the old systems off life support.
OPENPOWER is quite good as an x86 alternative, and I think with further refinements and cost reductions, especially with Raptor being the innovator, as long as they continue to turn a profit somehow, we'll see it through to have this be the new era.
I'm not a hater of old hardware. i have an SGI Onyx2 here in my office alongside many other systems - but I don't care for PowerPC macs. They're in a bad place for me - too old to do anything useful or modern with, and too new to offer any gaming potential that's unique to them or have any serious advantages over alternatives from around the same time. Not to mention a million issues I have with macOS and MorphOS - the two most common OSes for machines of that era.
Considering my Onyx2 is nearly a decade older than say a PowerMac G4 MDD and can do 4G of RAM, 4 CPUs, and more than 512M of graphics memory, it's a clear choice for me. No judgment if you enjoy those systems, of course, you do you, but I can't see the appeal. Then again, I don't "hate" windows the way some people do. I just find it boring, moreorless.
q66:
The G5s are pretty capable, especially the late 2005 PCIe ones. Up to 4 cores and 16GB RAM, can use a modern GPU with Linux, can use NVMe SSDs, USB3, and so on. The 32-bit stuff is dated, but still makes for reasonable testing machines at least (there isn't any better 32-bit PowerPC hardware out there unless you count the Wii U, which doesn't let you run mainline kernels at least yet, has no accelerated graphics drivers and has the 1 core limitation)
Raion:
--- Quote from: q66 on December 03, 2019, 08:19:02 am ---The G5s are pretty capable, especially the late 2005 PCIe ones. Up to 4 cores and 16GB RAM, can use a modern GPU with Linux, can use NVMe SSDs, USB3, and so on. The 32-bit stuff is dated, but still makes for reasonable testing machines at least (there isn't any better 32-bit PowerPC hardware out there unless you count the Wii U, which doesn't let you run mainline kernels at least yet, has no accelerated graphics drivers and has the 1 core limitation)
--- End quote ---
I've owned them, and no, they're not capable. When a low-end Nehalem desktop can blow them out of the water in terms of performance, keeping in mind you can usually get these for free, that's a problem in my eyes. If the G5 could run el kernels, I'd say it's worth supporting, but clearly Apple's inability to juggle BE and EL ports of macOS, and other things, really hobbles it.
also, G5s are loud, even the watercooled models that I've owned. Granted, according to ClassicHasClass (I sold him a G5 which sadly got banged around in shipping by FedEx) the one I sent him needed a pump rebuild. They sound like keurigs drawing in water, and they output crazy heat, can't do 2k, 10-bit video (most of the stuff I watch is anime in 10-bit) and are all around crap for anything GP—I applaud ClassicHasClass for his dedication for sure, but sadly the sacrifices he is/was able to make to run Bruce as a daily (dunno if he still does or he mostly uses the T2 he has) don't work for me.
(Note, I realize that my case isn't the necessarily perfect way, but as someone who prefers BSD or illumos, not being el on an arch prevents me from using it, this is the reason I sadly sold my SPARC64 fujitsu systems)
q66:
--- Quote from: Raion on December 09, 2019, 10:57:38 pm ---
--- Quote from: q66 on December 03, 2019, 08:19:02 am ---The G5s are pretty capable, especially the late 2005 PCIe ones. Up to 4 cores and 16GB RAM, can use a modern GPU with Linux, can use NVMe SSDs, USB3, and so on. The 32-bit stuff is dated, but still makes for reasonable testing machines at least (there isn't any better 32-bit PowerPC hardware out there unless you count the Wii U, which doesn't let you run mainline kernels at least yet, has no accelerated graphics drivers and has the 1 core limitation)
--- End quote ---
I've owned them, and no, they're not capable. When a low-end Nehalem desktop can blow them out of the water in terms of performance, keeping in mind you can usually get these for free, that's a problem in my eyes. If the G5 could run el kernels, I'd say it's worth supporting, but clearly Apple's inability to juggle BE and EL ports of macOS, and other things, really hobbles it.
also, G5s are loud, even the watercooled models that I've owned. Granted, according to ClassicHasClass (I sold him a G5 which sadly got banged around in shipping by FedEx) the one I sent him needed a pump rebuild. They sound like keurigs drawing in water, and they output crazy heat, can't do 2k, 10-bit video (most of the stuff I watch is anime in 10-bit) and are all around crap for anything GP—I applaud ClassicHasClass for his dedication for sure, but sadly the sacrifices he is/was able to make to run Bruce as a daily (dunno if he still does or he mostly uses the T2 he has) don't work for me.
(Note, I realize that my case isn't the necessarily perfect way, but as someone who prefers BSD or illumos, not being el on an arch prevents me from using it, this is the reason I sadly sold my SPARC64 fujitsu systems)
--- End quote ---
1080p 10-bit video works perfectly fine with no framedrops on mine (aircooled dualcore 2.3GHz) - using mpv. The bottleneck there was GPU - after putting in a more modern Radeon (currently HD4670), there are no issues. It's not loud either, unless you load it a lot. The performance seems generally alright as well. I mostly use it for testing, and occasionally I need to trigger a build job on it or something, and it handles that fine (though obviously nowhere near as fast as my POWER9 metal)
edit: just tested pure CPU decoding performance on a 10bit 1080p h264 sample, it averages at ~40FPS, which is plenty headroom for 24fps video...)
Raion:
--- Quote from: q66 on December 10, 2019, 12:44:09 pm ---
1080p 10-bit video works perfectly fine with no framedrops on mine (aircooled dualcore 2.3GHz) - using mpv. The bottleneck there was GPU - after putting in a more modern Radeon (currently HD4670), there are no issues. It's not loud either, unless you load it a lot. The performance seems generally alright as well. I mostly use it for testing, and occasionally I need to trigger a build job on it or something, and it handles that fine (though obviously nowhere near as fast as my POWER9 metal)
edit: just tested pure CPU decoding performance on a 10bit 1080p h264 sample, it averages at ~40FPS, which is plenty headroom for 24fps video...)
--- End quote ---
Well, my test was in macos on the last build of VLC. As I've said, I don't use Linux, and that limited my GPU selection as well. But if it works for you and you like it that's what's important. Me, they're ugly, loud and have nothing redeeming them in my eyes.
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