Terra Soft Solutions Inc. announced Wednesday that it offers “preliminary support” for the Power Mac G5 with its implementation of the Linux operating system, called Yellow Dog Linux.
In fact, the company has supported G5s with a beta version of Yellow Dog Linux since September. Terra Soft continues to offer Yellow Dog Linux in that form, though they caution that it presently offers “32-bit support with 64-bit right around the corner.” The company has posted a Web page that offers some details about its commitment to G5 systems.
Publicly unveiled in June at the Worldwide Developers Conference and shipping since this past summer, Apple’s Power Mac G5 is the first Mac to feature a 64-bit CPU — IBM’s PowerPC 970 microprocessor. The clock speed of the processor — up to 2.0GHz in its current incarnation — and other architectural improvements to the Power Mac’s motherboard (such as the use of HyperTransport technology and a front-side bus that operates at up to 1GHz) has made the G5 the darling of companies and individuals looking to accomplish computing-intensive tasks with their systems.
Terra Soft Solutions itself is an Apple Authorized Proprietary Solutions Provider. In addition to their own development of Yellow Dog Linux and its companion cluster management application Black Lab, Terra Soft also offers complete Mac systems with Yellow Dog Linux pre-installed, as well as the briQ, a complete G3 or G4-based computer that can operate in an expansion bay or as a network appliance.