Yellow Dog Linux

Yellow Dog Linux (YDL) was a free and open-source operating system for high-performance computing on multi-core processor computer architectures. It focuses on GPU systems and computers using the POWER7. YDL was developed by Fixstars (which acquired Terra Soft Solutions, the original developer, from CEO Kai Staats in October 2008).[2] Yellow Dog Linux was first released in the spring of 1999[3] for the Apple Macintosh PowerPC-based computers. The most recent version, Yellow Dog Linux 7,[4] was released on August 6, 2012.[1] Yellow Dog Linux lent its name to the popular YUM Linux software updater, derived from YDL's YUP (Yellowdog UPdater) and thus called Yellowdog Updater, Modified.

Yellow Dog Linux
DeveloperFixstars Solutions
OS familyUnix-like
Working stateDiscontinued
Source modelOpen source
Latest release7.0 / August 6, 2012 (2012-08-06)[1]
PlatformsPOWER7, Cell
Kernel typeMonolithic Linux kernel
Default user interfaceEnlightenment
LicenseGNU GPL, LGPL, others
Official websitewww.yellowdoglinux.com (broken link)

Features
Screenshot of Yellow Dog Linux Version 6.0 'Pyxis' depicting Enlightenment, the default window manager

Yellow Dog Linux was based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux/CentOS[3] and relied on the RPM Package Manager.[5] Its software included applications such as Ekiga (a voice-over-IP and videoconferencing application), GIMP (a raster graphics editor), Gnash (a free Adobe Flash player), gThumb (an image viewer), the Mozilla Firefox Web browser, the Mozilla Thunderbird e-mail and news client, the OpenOffice.org productivity suite, Pidgin (an instant messaging and IRC client), the Rhythmbox music player, and the Noatun and Totem media players.

Starting with YDL version 5.0 'Phoenix,' Enlightenment was the default desktop environment in Yellow Dog Linux, although GNOME and KDE were also included.

Like other Linux distributions, Yellow Dog Linux supported software development with GCC[1] (compiled with support for C, C++, Java, and Fortran), the GNU C Library, GDB, GLib, the GTK+ toolkit, Python, the Qt toolkit, Ruby and Tcl. Standard text editors such as Vim and Emacs were complemented with IDEs such as Eclipse and KDevelop, as well as by graphical debuggers such as KDbg. Standard document preparation tools such as TeX and LaTeX were also included.

Yellow Dog Linux included software for running a Web server (such as Apache/httpd, Perl, and PHP), database server (such as MySQL and PostgreSQL), and network server (NFS and Webmin). Additional software was also included for running an enterprise server or a compute server or cluster, although two separate products from Terra Soft Solutions, called Yellow Dog Enterprise Linux (for enterprise servers) and Y-HPC (for compute servers/clusters), were specifically targeted toward those applications.

Although several other Linux distributions support the Power ISA, Yellow Dog Linux was distinguished for its focus on supporting the Apple Macintosh[6] platform before the Mac transition to Intel processors. Before this transition, Terra Soft Solutions held the unique distinction of being the only company licensed by Apple to resell Apple computers with Linux pre-installed[7] (or for that matter, with any operating system other than Mac OS X). Full support for AirPort (Apple's implementation of the IEEE 802.11b-1999 wireless networking standard), and partial support for AirPort Extreme, are also built into Yellow Dog Linux, as are support for Bluetooth and support for accessing the Internet over cellular phones.

Following the Mac transition to Intel processors, Yellow Dog Linux retargeted version 5 and later[8] to support the Sony PlayStation 3[9] and IBM pSeries platforms extensively, while retaining its longstanding support for PowerPC-based Apple hardware.

Distribution

Yellow Dog Linux was sold by Fixstars, who also marketed Sony PlayStation 3 consoles, IBM workstations,[10] and servers[11] with Yellow Dog Linux pre-installed. As is the case with most other Linux distribution vendors, a portion of the revenue from the sale of those boxed distributions went toward development of the operating system and applications, which are made available as source code under various free and open-source licenses.

A notable application of YDL on PlayStation 3 consoles was Gaurav Khanna, a professor in the Physics Department at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth built a message-passing based cluster using 16 PS3s. This cluster was the first such cluster that generated published scientific results. Dubbed as the "PS3 Gravity Grid", this PS3 cluster performs astrophysical simulations of large supermassive black holes capturing smaller compact objects.[12] Khanna claims that the cluster's performance exceeds that of a 100+ Intel Xeon core based traditional Linux cluster on his simulations. The PS3 Gravity Grid gathered significant media attention through 2007,[13][14] 2008,[15][16] 2009[17][18][19] and 2010.[20][21]

Releases

The following table summarizes the release history of Yellow Dog Linux:

Version Name Release date Linux Kernel version Notes
1.1 ? 8 March 1999 2.2.15
1.2 ? 4 March 2000 2.2.19
2.0 Pomona 17 May 2001 2.4.10
2.1 Fuji 17 October 2001 2.4.18
2.2 Rome 22 March 2002 2.4.19
2.3 Dayton 23 June 2002 2.4.20
3.0 Sirius 19 March 2003 2.4.22
3.0.1 " 17 September 2003 Fixes issue with RPMs in ver. 3.0
4.0 Orion 29 September 2004 ?
4.1 Sagitta 2 February 2006 2.6.15-rc5
5.0 Phoenix 27 November 2006 2.6.16[22] Support for PlayStation 3 (Cell)
5.0.1 " 27 March 2007 2.6.17
5.0.2 14 June 2007 2.6.22-rc4 Support for IBM pSeries
6.0 Pyxis 5 February 2008 2.6.23
6.1 ? 19 November 2008 2.6.27
6.1 Pyxis 1 February 2009 2.6.28
6.2[23] Pyxis 29 June 2009 2.6.29 ydl.oregonstate.edu/iso/RELEASE-NOTES
6.2.1 Enterprise for CUDA[24] Pyxis 2 March 2010 www.fixstars.com/en/company/press/20100302.html
6.3 Enterprise for CUDA ? 14 February 2011 ?
7.0[25] 6 August 2012 2.6.32

References
  1. "DistroWatch.com: Yellow Dog Linux".
  2. Shoemaker, Kristin (11 November 2008). "Terra Soft Solutions Acquired by Fixstars". Retrieved 13 July 2013.
  3. "Yellow Dog Linux". Linux Foundation. Retrieved 13 July 2013.
  4. "PowerLinux 7R2 Yellow Dog Appliance".
  5. Negus, Christopher (2009). Linux Bible 2009 Edition. Wiley Publishing, Inc. Retrieved 13 July 2013.
  6. "Comparison of Distribution". Retrieved 13 July 2013.
  7. "Terra Soft Ships Apple computers - YDL Pre-Installed". 8 August 2002. Archived from the original on December 7, 2002. Retrieved 13 July 2013.
  8. Hill, Brandon (19 October 2006). "Terra Soft Announces Linux-based OS for PS3". DailyTech. Retrieved 13 July 2013.
  9. Boyes, Emma (27 November 2006). "Yellow Dog Linux launches for PS3". GameSpot. Retrieved 13 July 2013.
  10. "Yellow Dog Linux Supports New IBM B50". 13 September 1999. Retrieved 13 July 2013.
  11. "Yellow Dog Enterprise Linux for the BCU-100" (PDF). Sony. Retrieved 13 July 2013.
  12. "PS3 Gravity Grid". Gaurav Khanna, Associate Professor, College of Engineering, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
  13. "Astrophysicist Replaces Supercomputer with Eight PlayStation 3s". Wired. 17 October 2007.
  14. "PS3 cluster creates homemade, cheaper supercomputer".
  15. Highfield, Roger (17 February 2008). "Why scientists love games consoles". The Daily Telegraph. London.
  16. Peckham, Matt (23 December 2008). "Nothing Escapes the Pull of a PlayStation 3, Not Even a Black Hole". The Washington Post.
  17. "Playstation 3 Consoles Tackle Black Hole Vibrations".
  18. "Playstation 3: A Discount Supercomputer?".
  19. "The Supercomputer Goes Personal".
  20. "The PlayStation powered super-computer". BBC News. 4 September 2010.
  21. Farrell, John (12 November 2010). "Black Holes and Quantum Loops: More Than Just a Game". Forbes.
  22. Nestor, Marius (28 December 2006). "Free Download of Yellow Dog Linux for Playstation 3". Softpedia. Retrieved 6 November 2014.
  23. "[yellowdog-announce] Fixstars Releases YDL v6.2 with Xfce, USB install, and EPEL: Press Release 29 June 2009". 29 June 2009. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  24. "[yellowdog-announce] Fixstars to Release "Yellow Dog Linux for CUDA"". 20 July 2010. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  25. "[yellowdog-announce] Introducing the PowerLinux 7R2 Yellow Dog Appliance and Yellow Dog Linux 7". 8 August 2012. Retrieved 8 February 2013.

Reviews
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