Ode to Loss (an EOL Eulogy)

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Ode to Loss (an EOL Eulogy)

Postby NeoAmsterdam » 09 Sep 2012, 00:47

When the vision of the horizon nearing came, I thought I knew what the future would Be. Today the paths come to a close, my brothers, as inevitability rears its ugly head for the final time.

You, O Performa 6360, won the battle with the dreaded X11, and YDL 2.1 ran just fine. And when your late brother, that 5250, vacated its housing for your mother board, you fought on - despite X11 having no clue how to draw graphics on that built-in 15" screen. You, O Gossamer, oh nimble creature that sped through OS 9.2.2, flaunted X.1.5, and bragged YDL 3.0.1, it was with you I traveled the 99 Seas. With that 12" PCI board, you pacified the barbarians' vice for words. You, O Titanium PowerBook, who made Panthers eat 4 Dogs' dust, who survived collegiate use (and afterhours abuse)... upon your keyboard did I code that undergraduate thesis. And You, O G5 Quad, whose four cores were pulled by 6.2 huskies; you rendered the graduate project too fast for real-time, and shamed your OEM's multimedia suite!

The 7500! The 9600/300! The Xserve Dual G5! Oh! How won'drous the Power! Oh, how my Yellow Dog mauled that Red Hat!...

But I speak as if to the dead - the Apple fell far from its tree, old Yellow put down, and now the last living veteran to have Fought the Good Fight... alas! your symptoms decyphered as hyperthermia. None of the liquid coolant in all of Neptune shall wash my tears as I take you on your final voyage to the curb.

Yes, we compiled the good code; yes, we debugged the bad code. It has been a decade's distance with ten years worth of PowerPC Linux binaries run. But the inevitable comes, and as you cross the pearly gates marked "End-of-Life", speak well of me to your forebearers.

...and may whichever Steve we believe in have mercy upon our bleak computing future.
shutdown -h now # Will the last person to leave please remember to turn off the lights?
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Re: Ode to Loss (an EOL Eulogy)

Postby ppietro » 09 Sep 2012, 04:05

If I understand it right, I'm sorry for your (computing) loss.

Cheers,
Paul

P.S. Excellently written, BTW. :)
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Re: Ode to Loss (an EOL Eulogy)

Postby NeoAmsterdam » 09 Sep 2012, 04:53

Indeed you read right: my PowerPC (and by extension, Yellow Dog) days are numbered. I keep thinking "If only it hadn't been the LCS" - the only part I can't fix! :x

Cypher did well for six years of 24/7 use - and in dusty, hot, and humid conditions no less! And I still can't figure out what was different about YDL 6.2 (as opposed to 6.1) that made it go from light speed to ludicrous speed, but it was... I dunno... "Raw unbridled power" falls short. It made for the greatest computing platform I've ever had the privilege and pleasure to use.

I think we all had that sinking feeling when you-know-who jumped architectures. We felt it again when TSS was bought out. And again when Fedora gave up on PPC, and so on, and so forth. The party clearly had to end sometime, but somehow we kept pushing the deadline down the road just a little bit longer. :wink:

* sigh *

I miss it already. :cry:
shutdown -h now # Will the last person to leave please remember to turn off the lights?
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