Ten months after releasing its sixth version of Yellow Dog Linux (abbreviated as YDL), Fixstars has released the new, 6.1 edition. This is also the first version released after the company was acquired by Terra Soft. For those who are unfamiliar with YDL, it is a Linux distribution programmed for Sony Playstation 3, PowerStation and Apple G4 and G5.
Yellow Dog Linux is based on CentOS, a cousin of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Owen Stampflee, the Director of Engineering in TeraSoft states that this is one of the biggest updates in YDL, and that they have looked over every segment of users.
For regular users the update mainly contains software and application updates, like Firefox and OpenOffice. Although, OpenOffice is still not updated on its last version, it should be available soon. Nevertheless, v6.1 has a significant update introducing the ps3vram, a solution that uses the fast GDDR as a SWAP or like temporary file storage. In addition, Bluetooth support for SIXAXIS should bring joy to the owners of one. Wireless communications support are supposed to be greatly improved.
Like in YDL 5.0 Phoenix, the main desktop environment is Enlightenment, but you can also use GNOME or KDE, which are included.
Of course, developers can look upon the latest stable kernel, an updated GCC, and Cell Superscalar.
Fixstars has provided an overview page where you can introduce yourself with all of the applications and packages available in this distribution.
If you like what you are reading now, and need a distribution for your PS3 to use it as a PC, you can use YDL. Keep in mind that this distribution is not free. It is sold as a two DVD set, and the price starts from $50 with shipping.