[sf-lug] SF-LUG meeting notes for Sunday, January 6, 2019

[Bobbie Sellers]

On 1/6/19 7:22 PM, Rick Moen wrote:
> Quoting Bobbie Sellers (bliss-sf4ever at dslextreme.com):
>
> [Fatdog64 release 800 beta:]
>
>> It even has GSmartControl which is a very good tool if you have had
>> the same disk for awhile and need to check it for problems due age or
>> accident.
> For those curious what the heck that is, it's just a gtk+ 3.x-based
> graphical front end to the standard smartmontools.
> https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/S.M.A.R.T.

     It has saved me a good deal of time with my used machines
which developed problems and isolated it to aged hard drives
which are easily and quickly replaced at relatively low cost these
days.
> Also:  Fatdog64 is yet another installable live distro, in this case
> originally derived from Puppy Linux, and more recently based on
> Slackware.  2017 review:https://www.linuxinsider.com/story/84433.html

     And when you exit it offers to create a Save File on the hard disk...
>> Joseph P. came in and carried along a flawless G4 iBook.  He is having
>> problems connecting to WiFi.  After some experimentation I found that for
>> the Cafe Enchante, he did not have WAP available.  I have suggested he go to
>> the SFPL and use an Internet cable to do some updates.  But Apple had
>> the style for the iBook down even back in G4 days.
> I note with appreciation your separate attempt to help Joseph with the
> WiFi-connetivity problem, which I gather involves the necessarily very
> outdated MacOSX preload.  And, my point is about that:  The final
> release of OS X for PowerPC was version 1.05 'Leopard' in 2007, whose
> final release was 10.5.8 on August 13, 2009, over nine years ago.  Of
> course, the G4 iBook's OS load is at _best_ that outdated.  Maybe a lot
> worse.

     That was only 4 years of support from the time the iBook was released.
     But the user suggestion to get online by turning off the firewall 
makes me queasy.
> The best solution, IMO, to Joseph's problem is:  Linux.  Not finding
> ways to limp along a dangerously unmaintained OSX.
> https://distrowatch.com/search.php?architecture=powerpc

     I agree with you on that point,
     I have found Distrowatch now has a good tool for finding releases 
that support the PPC and that there
are about 5 or 6 respectable candidates.
     Which ever Joseph wants I will do my best to get it into his hands.
> The writing has been on the wall since Tthe mid-2000s, however, that
> PowerPC (except for some niches that PPC Macs aren't in) was going away,
> and it's best to not bank on them.  Nostalgia for computer hardware has
> practical limits, and IMO PowerPC Macs are far past their day.

     Yes PPCs were Apple's plan to destroy everyone who depended on PPC 
production which
hurt a lot of folks in the Amiga area of interest.  Still though some 
consumer/video editing
machines are being sold at high, high prices using the ill chosen PPC.
     But this is the hardware that Joseph could get at a cost 
approaching zero.
     Which a good price for someone in economic difficulty.

     Bobbie Sellers

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