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Since you have an intel Mac there's always the Linux upgrade option.

PPC Macs are an option too: http://penguinppc.org/

Yellow Dog linux is a very poor distro. It's repos are old, the default desktop is odd and hard to work with, and updates are infrequent. If I were you I'd stick to the standard distros like Debian or Gentoo. Many of the small distros that support ppc aren't very good. Ubuntu ppc is only available as a daily build of 10.10. So, unless you like using the stuff at the very very bleeding edge... It wouldn't be a good idea.

Basically, use Debian... or if you're daring use Gentoo.

List of ppc distros (most are outdated):
http://penguinppc.org/about/distributions.php

I have a G4 PowerMac which apparently won't run 10.6. Can Linux be run on this machine? Are there any stores/dealers/whatever that would do the install for me?

If you Google "ppc linux," the top hit

seems to answer many of your questions. I don't know about finding someone who will do the install for you, but it really shouldn't be hard to do it yourself.

That is a PowerPC, right? Or, PPC? You might start a search here: http://www.tuaw.com/2007/04/22/ubuntu-yellow-dog-linux-for-ppc/ Actually, this looks even better: http://penguinppc.org/about/distributions.php I've never owned a PPC, so I can't give you any more guidance than that.

Maybe you're thinking of Microkernel Linux (MkLinux) http://www.mklinux.org/ or LinuxPPC/PenguinPPC http://penguinppc.org/?

I agree that AIX is often a better solution for stable mission critical applications, but the performance tuning or micropartitioning can also happen with Linux on System p and System i. (formerly pSeries and iSeries). Take a look at http://penguinppc.org/ppc64/

But it also lets Windows and Linux applications run at native speed on Apple hardware

Gee, you mean you couldn't run Linux on Macs before?

(1) They control what hardware their OS will run on"

No, they control the software need to run the hardware they build.
Apple is a hardware company, always have been.

"(2) They often tried (though not recently) to control what OS(es) will run on their hardware"

No, they never helped some write software for there hardware, but they never tried to stop anyone either.

Also note that the linuxppc project seems to have died out as he retired from the project about a years after. There are apparently alternatives that work. So maybe it'll all work out one way or another, no matter what happens to the developer. Dammit, we're all dispensable, people!

1. You're gonna need multiple Linux flavors and versions from multiple sources that specialized in these platforms.
   
   • ALPHA
     
   • ARM
     
   • I686
     
   • IA64
     
   • M68K
     
   • PowerPC PenguiPPC Denx
     
   • MIPS
     
   • S390
     
   • SuperH
     
   • UltraSPARC
     
   • X86_64
     
   
   
2. To determine which versions of crosstool (compiler, linkers, debugger), check out The Matrix Guy (Dan Kegel), or more specifically THE MATRIX of workable gcc/g++/ld/gdb.
   
3. To ease your pain of figuring out the "./configure" options, definitely checkout PTXDist. Menuconfig is similar to Linux 'make menuconfig'. PTXDist also help to build a root file system in a jiffy, which in my book, is a PLUS!
   

There is no mention of installing to a secondary drive.
This would be the best case scenario in my opinion.
It would be great if the linux community develops a macintel version of "yaboot". http://penguinppc.org/bootloaders/yaboot/index.sht ml
Then we're off to the races.
Triple boot anyone?
Mac OS X / Linux / Windoze

I think the best way to go about this would be to do something that was done to enable Linux to boot on old world Macs. On a PowerMac 8600 (for example) the best way to boot into PPC Linux, was to use a special boot loader called BootX http://penguinppc.org/bootloaders/bootx/. Basically, it was an OS 9 program that immediately ran as OS 9 had a basic initialization startup. It gave you a choice to ether to continue to boot into OS 9 or boot into Linux. It is unique from other boot loaders in that it bypasses a computer's firmware and lets Mac OS handle it. I think this is the way to go....let OS X handle the boot process that deals with the firmware, then give users a choice to boot into Windows or finish with the OS X boot process.

Convert the Buffalo to a Kuruo Box!
http://penguinppc.org/embedded/kuro/

...are you assuming that just because Apple chose x86 for its chips that they will dump OpenFirmware for a BIOS? I don't think so. Too many other parts of the OS would have to change.

If you want to run another OS on Apple86, you will need to throw yaboot into the discussion.

Look here

I forgot the low-end options for the post apple-intel-switchers

You can get a KuroBox for US$160

http://penguinppc.org/embedded/kuro/
http://www.kurobox.com/

Or look for a cheap PPC based Wireless Basestation/DSL Router. I know early Nokia ones were PPC based.

The (unofficial) PPC version of Fedora Core 3 unfortunately didn't work too well for me, so I'll be trying it again when FC4 final is released.

The full list of PPC distributions: here

In order to run Linux on "Old World" hardware you need an application called Bootx

http://penguinppc.org/~benh/

In order for it to work you need a Mac OS installed on the computer. On the beige G3's I have installed it on I usually set it up like this:

OS 8.1 installed on a 100 MB partition.
Install Bootx as an extention.
Install YDL using the remaining HD space.
All is good.

...the rest of the millions will ignore this fact, and happily watch (name your stupid television show here).

In contrast to what other posters mentioned, this will not bring about anything.
At most, it's a Harisson Bergeron thing - reality I guess.

"Linux wil run on most, if not all desktop computers currently running Windows."

In fact, Linux runs on about 23 additional architectures that Microsoft can't even remotely support with their most-flexible embedded target.

• Diverse PDA / embedded / microcontroller / router devices:
  • Advanced RISC Machines, Ltd. ARM family (StrongARM SA-1110, XScale, ARM6, ARM7, ARM2, ARM250, ARM3i, ARM610, ARM710, ARM720T, and ARM920T)
  • Analog Devices, Inc.'s Blackfin DSP
  • Axis Communications ETRAX series ("CRIS" = Code Reduced Instruction Set RISC architecture)
  • Elan SC520 and SC300
  • Fujitsu FR-V
  • Hitachi H8 series
  • Intel i960
  • Intel IA32-compatibles (Cyrix MediaGX, STMicroelectronics STPC, ZF Micro ZFx86)
  • Matsushita AM3x
  • MIPS-compatibles (Toshiba TMPRxxxx / TXnnnn, NEC VR series, Realtek 8181)
  • Motorola 680x0-based machines (Motorola VMEbus boards, ISICAD Prisma machines, and Motorola Dragonball & ColdFire CPUs, and Cisco 2500/3000/4000 series routers)
  • Motorola embedded PowerPC (including MPC / PowerQUICC I, II, III families)
  • NEC V850E
  • Renesas Technology (formerly Hitachi) SH3/SH4 (SuperH: link1 link2)
  • Samsung CalmRISC
  • Texas Instruments's DM64x and C54x DSP families
• Intel 8086 / 80286 .
• Intel IA32 family: i386, i486, Pentium, Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium III, Xeon, and Pentium IV processors, as well as IA32 clones from AMD, Cyrix, VIA, IDT, Winchip, NexGen, Transmeta, VIA C3 Ezra "CentaurHauls", and others.
• Intel/HP IA64: Trillian/Itanium/Itanium2
• AMD x86-64 Hammer family (including AMD Opteron)
• Motorola 68020-68040 series (with MMU): m68k Mac, Amiga, Atari ST/TT/Medusa/Falcon, HP/Apollo Domain, HP9000/300, sun3, and Sinclair Q40.
• Motorola/IBM PowerPC family: Most PowerMac (including G3/G4/G5) / CHRP / PReP / POP, Amiga PowerUP System, and IBM PPC64 (AS/400, RS/6000).
• MIPS

"Linux wil run on most, if not all desktop computers currently running Windows."

In fact, Linux runs on about 23 additional architectures that Microsoft can't even remotely support with their most-flexible embedded target.

• Diverse PDA / embedded / microcontroller / router devices:
  • Advanced RISC Machines, Ltd. ARM family (StrongARM SA-1110, XScale, ARM6, ARM7, ARM2, ARM250, ARM3i, ARM610, ARM710, ARM720T, and ARM920T)
  • Analog Devices, Inc.'s Blackfin DSP
  • Axis Communications ETRAX series ("CRIS" = Code Reduced Instruction Set RISC architecture)
  • Elan SC520 and SC300
  • Fujitsu FR-V
  • Hitachi H8 series
  • Intel i960
  • Intel IA32-compatibles (Cyrix MediaGX, STMicroelectronics STPC, ZF Micro ZFx86)
  • Matsushita AM3x
  • MIPS-compatibles (Toshiba TMPRxxxx / TXnnnn, NEC VR series, Realtek 8181)
  • Motorola 680x0-based machines (Motorola VMEbus boards, ISICAD Prisma machines, and Motorola Dragonball & ColdFire CPUs, and Cisco 2500/3000/4000 series routers)
  • Motorola embedded PowerPC (including MPC / PowerQUICC I, II, III families)
  • NEC V850E
  • Renesas Technology (formerly Hitachi) SH3/SH4 (SuperH: link1 link2)
  • Samsung CalmRISC
  • Texas Instruments's DM64x and C54x DSP families
• Intel 8086 / 80286 .
• Intel IA32 family: i386, i486, Pentium, Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium III, Xeon, and Pentium IV processors, as well as IA32 clones from AMD, Cyrix, VIA, IDT, Winchip, NexGen, Transmeta, VIA C3 Ezra "CentaurHauls", and others.
• Intel/HP IA64: Trillian/Itanium/Itanium2
• AMD x86-64 Hammer family (including AMD Opteron)
• Motorola 68020-68040 series (with MMU): m68k Mac, Amiga, Atari ST/TT/Medusa/Falcon, HP/Apollo Domain, HP9000/300, sun3, and Sinclair Q40.
• Motorola/IBM PowerPC family: Most PowerMac (including G3/G4/G5) / CHRP / PReP / POP, Amiga PowerUP System, and IBM PPC64 (AS/400, RS/6000).
• MIPS

"Linux wil run on most, if not all desktop computers currently running Windows."

In fact, Linux runs on about 23 additional architectures that Microsoft can't even remotely support with their most-flexible embedded target.

• Diverse PDA / embedded / microcontroller / router devices:
  • Advanced RISC Machines, Ltd. ARM family (StrongARM SA-1110, XScale, ARM6, ARM7, ARM2, ARM250, ARM3i, ARM610, ARM710, ARM720T, and ARM920T)
  • Analog Devices, Inc.'s Blackfin DSP
  • Axis Communications ETRAX series ("CRIS" = Code Reduced Instruction Set RISC architecture)
  • Elan SC520 and SC300
  • Fujitsu FR-V
  • Hitachi H8 series
  • Intel i960
  • Intel IA32-compatibles (Cyrix MediaGX, STMicroelectronics STPC, ZF Micro ZFx86)
  • Matsushita AM3x
  • MIPS-compatibles (Toshiba TMPRxxxx / TXnnnn, NEC VR series, Realtek 8181)
  • Motorola 680x0-based machines (Motorola VMEbus boards, ISICAD Prisma machines, and Motorola Dragonball & ColdFire CPUs, and Cisco 2500/3000/4000 series routers)
  • Motorola embedded PowerPC (including MPC / PowerQUICC I, II, III families)
  • NEC V850E
  • Renesas Technology (formerly Hitachi) SH3/SH4 (SuperH: link1 link2)
  • Samsung CalmRISC
  • Texas Instruments's DM64x and C54x DSP families
• Intel 8086 / 80286 .
• Intel IA32 family: i386, i486, Pentium, Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium III, Xeon, and Pentium IV processors, as well as IA32 clones from AMD, Cyrix, VIA, IDT, Winchip, NexGen, Transmeta, VIA C3 Ezra "CentaurHauls", and others.
• Intel/HP IA64: Trillian/Itanium/Itanium2
• AMD x86-64 Hammer family (including AMD Opteron)
• Motorola 68020-68040 series (with MMU): m68k Mac, Amiga, Atari ST/TT/Medusa/Falcon, HP/Apollo Domain, HP9000/300, sun3, and Sinclair Q40.
• Motorola/IBM PowerPC family: Most PowerMac (including G3/G4/G5) / CHRP / PReP / POP, Amiga PowerUP System, and IBM PPC64 (AS/400, RS/6000).
• MIPS

"Linux wil run on most, if not all desktop computers currently running Windows."

In fact, Linux runs on about 23 additional architectures that Microsoft can't even remotely support with their most-flexible embedded target.

• Diverse PDA / embedded / microcontroller / router devices:
  • Advanced RISC Machines, Ltd. ARM family (StrongARM SA-1110, XScale, ARM6, ARM7, ARM2, ARM250, ARM3i, ARM610, ARM710, ARM720T, and ARM920T)
  • Analog Devices, Inc.'s Blackfin DSP
  • Axis Communications ETRAX series ("CRIS" = Code Reduced Instruction Set RISC architecture)
  • Elan SC520 and SC300
  • Fujitsu FR-V
  • Hitachi H8 series
  • Intel i960
  • Intel IA32-compatibles (Cyrix MediaGX, STMicroelectronics STPC, ZF Micro ZFx86)
  • Matsushita AM3x
  • MIPS-compatibles (Toshiba TMPRxxxx / TXnnnn, NEC VR series, Realtek 8181)
  • Motorola 680x0-based machines (Motorola VMEbus boards, ISICAD Prisma machines, and Motorola Dragonball & ColdFire CPUs, and Cisco 2500/3000/4000 series routers)
  • Motorola embedded PowerPC (including MPC / PowerQUICC I, II, III families)
  • NEC V850E
  • Renesas Technology (formerly Hitachi) SH3/SH4 (SuperH: link1 link2)
  • Samsung CalmRISC
  • Texas Instruments's DM64x and C54x DSP families
• Intel 8086 / 80286 .
• Intel IA32 family: i386, i486, Pentium, Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium III, Xeon, and Pentium IV processors, as well as IA32 clones from AMD, Cyrix, VIA, IDT, Winchip, NexGen, Transmeta, VIA C3 Ezra "CentaurHauls", and others.
• Intel/HP IA64: Trillian/Itanium/Itanium2
• AMD x86-64 Hammer family (including AMD Opteron)
• Motorola 68020-68040 series (with MMU): m68k Mac, Amiga, Atari ST/TT/Medusa/Falcon, HP/Apollo Domain, HP9000/300, sun3, and Sinclair Q40.
• Motorola/IBM PowerPC family: Most PowerMac (including G3/G4/G5) / CHRP / PReP / POP, Amiga PowerUP System, and IBM PPC64 (AS/400, RS/6000).
• MIPS

"Linux wil run on most, if not all desktop computers currently running Windows."

In fact, Linux runs on about 23 additional architectures that Microsoft can't even remotely support with their most-flexible embedded target.

• Diverse PDA / embedded / microcontroller / router devices:
  • Advanced RISC Machines, Ltd. ARM family (StrongARM SA-1110, XScale, ARM6, ARM7, ARM2, ARM250, ARM3i, ARM610, ARM710, ARM720T, and ARM920T)
  • Analog Devices, Inc.'s Blackfin DSP
  • Axis Communications ETRAX series ("CRIS" = Code Reduced Instruction Set RISC architecture)
  • Elan SC520 and SC300
  • Fujitsu FR-V
  • Hitachi H8 series
  • Intel i960
  • Intel IA32-compatibles (Cyrix MediaGX, STMicroelectronics STPC, ZF Micro ZFx86)
  • Matsushita AM3x
  • MIPS-compatibles (Toshiba TMPRxxxx / TXnnnn, NEC VR series, Realtek 8181)
  • Motorola 680x0-based machines (Motorola VMEbus boards, ISICAD Prisma machines, and Motorola Dragonball & ColdFire CPUs, and Cisco 2500/3000/4000 series routers)
  • Motorola embedded PowerPC (including MPC / PowerQUICC I, II, III families)
  • NEC V850E
  • Renesas Technology (formerly Hitachi) SH3/SH4 (SuperH: link1 link2)
  • Samsung CalmRISC
  • Texas Instruments's DM64x and C54x DSP families
• Intel 8086 / 80286 .
• Intel IA32 family: i386, i486, Pentium, Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium III, Xeon, and Pentium IV processors, as well as IA32 clones from AMD, Cyrix, VIA, IDT, Winchip, NexGen, Transmeta, VIA C3 Ezra "CentaurHauls", and others.
• Intel/HP IA64: Trillian/Itanium/Itanium2
• AMD x86-64 Hammer family (including AMD Opteron)
• Motorola 68020-68040 series (with MMU): m68k Mac, Amiga, Atari ST/TT/Medusa/Falcon, HP/Apollo Domain, HP9000/300, sun3, and Sinclair Q40.
• Motorola/IBM PowerPC family: Most PowerMac (including G3/G4/G5) / CHRP / PReP / POP, Amiga PowerUP System, and IBM PPC64 (AS/400, RS/6000).
• MIPS

Do yourself a favor, run Linux or get a Mac

Point of school is to learn, right? So whats the difference if they pick it up after hours of studying, or after a few minutes of "downloading". Heck, how is that any different than people learning as they already do, at different speeds? Should we go Harrison Bergeron on everyone?

Linux won't run on Apple's hardware?

MacOS won't run on other PPC systems? I guess it won't run on non-PPC systems either?

I suppose I won't even ask about Darwin.

"Looking and behaving better" is partly a matter of what you are used to, and also a reflection on the poor quality of many Java UIs, which is more a reflection on the apps themselves rather than the platform (there are exceptions, demonstrating that Java is capable of being better). If you could have an app that looked and acted exactly the same on all desktop machines, and appropriately differently on palmtop devices (but the same across all such devices), would that be enough to make you want to avoid duplicating all those presentation layers? (I think you underestimate the amount of work involved in producing a good presentation layer, BTW).

Of course we wouldnt want that!

THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.

But Linux runs just fine on PowerPC?

Pictures of the original prototype trials.

Some things about living still weren't quite right, though. April for instance, still drove people crazy by not being springtime. And it was in that clammy month that the H-G men took George and Hazel Bergeron's fourteen-year-old son, Harrison, away.

It was tragic, all right, but George and Hazel couldn't think about it very hard. Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant she couldn't think about anything except in short bursts. And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains.

This or maybe this should answer your questions.

i would call myself a democratic socialist

Ever hear of the Nazi party? Did you know it was a shortened version of the German name for the "Social Democratic" movement in Germany? And you have the gall to call me a fascist.

which means i feel it is the responsibility of government to provide basic services and civil infrastructure, including health care, education, law & enforcement, libraries, schools, some level of social welfare

In other words, a nanny state that make sure you never bump your big toe without some government social worker there to soothe your battered ego, and a therapist to make sure you handle the mental trauma without undue stress, and a trio of lawyers and regulators all clamoring to outlaw anything you might ever bump your big toe on for the rest of eternity. You can keep it.

this stems from the belief that a well-educated, healthy population ultimately benefits everyone and disadvantages noone

Disadvantages no one? Who the hell pays for all your handy government programs and government handouts, comrade? Santa Claus? The tooth fairy? The Easter bunny? No, people pay for your damned programs. But Europe and the rest of central Asia have been so browbeaten over the centuries that the citizens have no idea that life could possibly be any other way. Paying 40% of your income to taxes? Well, it's always been that way, so why complain? Sorry, you can keep it. No wonder our ancestors boarded leaky boats to sail to an unknown wilderness. I would have, too, if I'd had to put up with spineless jellyfish like you as companions.

everyone really does start off on an equal footing, and are not disadvantaged by race, religion, parental income, etc.

Which is another way of saying that you make sure nobody every rises above the mediocrity level inherent to your overall society. Hey, we're all equal, which means we all suck equally! Now don't you go getting ahead of the pack, mister! We'll tax you and regulate you and penalize you until you fit back in your nice, society-mandated slot. Harrison Bergeron indeed. Ever read Vonnegut, a European who had enough sense to get sick of Europe? Probably not. It's not in your socially-acceptable schedule, no doubt.

ever heard of china? they might be opening their markets but they are still communist.

A Communist system that allows even the slightest hint of free market is no longer Communist, just like goverment regulation of certain industries prevents the United States from being perfectly capitalist. However, since you chose to crow so loudly about how wonderful China is, perhaps you'd care to explain what happened in Tiananmen Square? A wonderful government system you've got there, comrade! Everyone is perfectly taken care of by the government, and those who step out of line are exterminated. And you have the gall to criticize the United States! Pot, meet kettle. I'm sure you two already know each other.

what does honesty and integrity have to do with the philosophy of government? idiot!

You're the total fucking idiot here, comrade, if you don't expect your government to be honest and have integrity, and if you don't expect your government to respect those same qualities (as well as hard work and innovation) in its citizens. But, I forget, you're comfortable with mediocrity, where everyone is equal, remember?

i don't care how much money people make, as long as the larger population is well cared for and as long as everyone gets a fair go to "make it".

Allow me to paraphrase your statement into truthfulness: "I don't care how much money you make so long as you pay as much as is necessary to support those who refuse to work as hard as you, who refuse to innovate as well as you, and who refuse to plan and discipline themselves as well as you are given all the same luxuries and benefits that you yourself

The Common Hardware Reference Platform (CHRP, aka PPCP) was released many many years ago, but it hasn't really taken off. IBM did sell some of these systems, and the modern pegasos platform offers G3 & G4 processors.

Here's some more technical info.

p.s. mac sleeping is perfect - sleep and wake are quick, and network connectivity (even when roaming) is very fast.

See here for PPC Linux info.

Have a look at the distributions box in the left margin.

Here it is, for those of you who are into all that internet-based copyright infringement that's all the rave these days.

Er, I mean, those of you who want to read this story without digging up that book for just one story.

Gee... they're already working on it.

There is a Linux girl. Apparently she runs Linux on an iBook.

Man...you're sick. Seriously. It's not your industry, and frankly, your incapacity to cope with the changing market climate is the exact problem the rest of the "industry" is having. Metallica is not inspirational. Do you realize that their greed has set the precedence in this country to allow other gluttonous companies to extort, bully and steal from the general public? It's also given way for the government to stagnate and destroy innovation while intruding into our private and personal lives? You may think you have nothing to hide, but mark my words that when the day comes that one of your children are the victims of some targetted governmental effort to eliminate the terrorist threat in our nation because they are a smart, intelligent individual capable of thinking on their own, you will wish that you hadn't given so much credit to Metallica. Instead, you'll be wondering why you hadn't made an effort to see what was really happening to you and your family instead of worrying about how to make a buck on the "industry."

Do you really, honestly believe that blacklisting people is going to make one bit of difference? Do you realize the kind of people that you would blacklist? I happen to know church leaders that don't really know much about this issue, but do know that they can listen to a new Amy Grant track online using P2P software. Do you really want to be responsible for suggesting that people like that be blacklisted? I don't think you know thing one about what you're dealing with here. I think your ignorance is more of a detriment to your family than some pirate uploading a CD online.

I think its high-time you get informed of the realities of this world, otherwise you're really not going to like what happens to your children when they live in a world similar to the world Harrison Bergeron lived in. And if you aren't familiar with what I'm talking about, click that link and start your education there.

1) Are there any?
No idea, a check around the net may come up with something. However they are specific to the board you are using...

2) How much bios code is reusable between completely different motherboards?
This again depends, on similar hardware, memory controllers, etc...

3) Will we always need a bios?
Well the other option is a ROM monitor or ipl (Initial program loader), those need to be written for the board you have, which is not trivial, esp without the hardware manual (specs, etc.)

Not perfect, but close.

Each PowerBook in Apple's current professional lineup can handle (according to the tech specs) close to your requirements.

Operating extremes are: 50 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit (10 to 35 degrees Celsius) for temperature; 20% to 80% relative humidity, non-condensing. Maximum operating altitude is at 10,000 feet.

Storage extremes are: 40 below to 116 degrees Fahrenheit (-40 to 47 degrees Celsius) for temperature; 15,000 feet maximum altitude.

And, of course, Linux on PowerPC kicks ass (as does OS X).

Best of luck.

justen

I run Debian. I haven't had any problems. The best thing you can do for Linux on PPC, period, is install the benh kernel from the Linux/PPC website, and then make sure you install the Apple-specific utilities. (You can get a nice list from 'apt-cache search ibook', 'apt-cache search powerbook', or just googling around for the laptop and distribution of your choice.)

I'll always recommend Debian because I've used it, liked it, and always had good experiences with it. (Stale packages aren't as much of an issue if you use testing or unstable.) I've heard good and bad things about Gentoo, not too much bad except that the default compile flags sometimes tend towards overoptimization; I've seen Gentoo build broken python before for AMD systems, for example. (This is especially ironic since portage is based on python. :/ ) I won't say "don't use Gentoo", though, since I've never used it myself; this is just what I've seen of other people's systems, and I have heard many good reviews.

The real lesson there, though, is make sure you really, really know what you're doing if you insist on building your system from scratch. ^_^ This goes double on an arch you don't know, and really for any non-x86 arch, since they don't get as much testing (less users). Also, a binary distribution is usually good for your first distro on a given architecture, since you can see how it sets up important things like boot setup and compare it to what you read about that arch's boot process.

What's the general theme of misfortune in the Gentoo PPC forum threads you've read? It may be just a Linux PPC thing, not a Gentoo thing.

Here is a list of how Linux works on various RS/6000 models.

I found this through penguinppc.org/.

I was looking for a cheap (hahahhha) PPC machine for PPC Linux and/or OS X a while back but it cost too much.

To my knowledge, the PPC distros of Linux cannot boot off of a firewire or usb drive. I know this was the case for a while, but Yellow Dog Linux 3 or Mandrake 9.1 may have fixed this.

Anyway, I use YDL on most of my boxes, its easily configured and has support for my hardware. It's basically RedHat 8 or 9 for the PPC architecture, so if you like RH, there you go. And there's always plenty of people willing to help in their IRC channel, which can be a big help.

I suggest checking out PenguinPPC.org for more info on the distributions.

Here is some info about installing Debian on this machine. You need the old Mac utility "Boot Variables" to get things set up without access to OF. It's a pain but it looks like it has been done. Back in the day I had linuxppc running on a UMAX J700 but I don't think that is an APUS system so it wasn't as big a nightmare. This information will be helpful as well identifying quirks of your machine.

It looks like 1.3.1 final is available here.

Apple is also working on running aqua and X apps side by side in the next version of MacOSX. Apple will introduce its own X server.

Done. Technically it's still beta, but it works great.

I have Debian packages at penguinppc.org, as well as several mirrors (look at the link, folks), that work on sid i386/powerpc/ia64/alpha (woody and sarge backports coming soon), and will upload 4.3.0-0ds1 today (and hopefully -0ds2 by Wednesday). These will be the base for Branden's 4.3 work.

Mike Harris, RedHat's maintainer, has some RPMs for RawHide (I think, might be 8.0) here. Don't say we don't do anything. :)

Hello!
In answer to your question, I've been creating a set of .debs for *ages* - see the README. They're currently available for sid i386/powerpc/ia64/alpha, but that should extend to woody/sarge/sid, and some more architectures. 4.3.0-0ds1 is building now on i386, powerpc and alpha, and should hit the site within a few hours.

It's not that they don't exist, it's more that you're too busy complaining on slashdot to find them (hell, they're even on apt-get.org). :)

DanielS - dstone (amphora) trinity (period) unimelb (period) edu (period) au

If you're really in a hurry, DanielS has some packages for X4.2.99 , snapshot 901, which I think could be called X4.3rc1. Maybe he'll do some unofficial packages for X4.3 ? Anyway, here's the link: http://penguinppc.org/~daniels/xfree86/README