Proposed new PowerPC portables

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An entrepreneurial fellow named Roberto has contacted me - and it would appear the Luddite also - about the potential for a new PowerPC-based laptop; which also is intended to run Linux.

I am not yet actually putting my support behind this, but since Roberto seems genuinely motivated about it, I thought it was well worth mentioning here.  I simply don't know enough about the project, and if it has enough resources to turn this into a reality.  He claims to be close on a logic board.

I have mentioned many times before that I'm not much of a laptop/portable user, so this wouldn't be an overly desirable thing for me personally, but Mark (fiftysixk) is a portable user, as are many of the readers here.

It will be interesting to see if this actually becomes a reality, but being a laptop, no matter the architecture, there is a lot more engineering involved.  Almost anyone can make a desktop/tower; hence the Mac-clone days back in the 90's, but a laptop is much more challenging.  We shall see what happens.

I give Roberto my sincere best wishes in this project.

GNU/Linux PowerPC Notebook
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7 comments:

  1. Thomas Carlson18 October 2014 at 15:05

    Does he say what PowerPC processor he's basing this on? The G3 (RAD 750) is tooling around on Mars as I write this. The G4 would be great and so would ARM11 (still RISC at least), but the G5... I could heat my house with that one. Not good for a laptop.

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    1. zen19 October 2014 at 05:40

      A G3 can run the rover because it doesn't need any type of bloat, because its user is a machine, not a human. Well, it is remotely operated by humans, but with command lines, not bloated (or even lightweight) GUI's.

      A modern laptop for humans simply couldn't use a G3 and have enough beef to be productive, so it would need to be a later G4 (e600), but the Luddite mentions it will be 64-bit.

      I simply don't know enough about it yet, nor have I had the time to look into it.

      G5 is simply not possible as a portable, unless you're a literal giant who would need a laptop the size of a pickup's box.

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    2. Unknown24 October 2014 at 10:15

      Can it be the PowerPC e6500 by Freescale?

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    3. Unknown24 October 2014 at 12:18

      Yes, it will be a PowerPC from Freescale! http://www.powerpc-notebook.org/2014/10/powerpc-notebook-welcome-back/

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  2. fiftysixk19 October 2014 at 19:26

    This is very interesting. If the final product could completely operate, from the initialization program/BIOS/firmware (the proper term is escaping me) all the way to an OS, using nothing but free software, it could gain the support of the Free Software Foundation. An endorsement from the FSF could do wonders for Roberto Innocenti's project. Who knows, maybe Richard Stallman would trade in his Loongson powered Lemote laptop for one of these.

    I will be watching this as it progresses.

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  3. Anonymous22 October 2014 at 06:52

    As cool as this is, I would be more excited in seeing those with the talent to put their efforts towards software at this point.

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  4. robyinno5 November 2014 at 15:48

    From today there is the FAQ section on the Open Source PowerPC notebook website http://powerpc-notebook.org/ , thank again for this post!

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