Two Shots In The Arm For PPC Linux

pinqkandi writes: "SuSE Linux 7.3 PowerPC Edition has now gone into distribution. New for this version are more USB drivers, and improved memory management, among other things. It is now based on Kernel 2.4.12 and glibc 2.2.4. For $79.95 you get it and 2000+ apps on 8 CDs, 550 pages of documentation, and 60 days of tech support." Read on for another nice turn for PPC users with an itch for Free software.

If updated PPC distributions interest you, this might too: DocTomoe writes: "The staff at iMacLinux have put together one of the largest PowerPC specific Linux resources. The new site called TuxPPC covers all PowerPC hardware. The site is aimed at not just people with Macs who want to try Linux, but at Linux users who might be interested in getting into the PowerPC platform."guides and web forums, too.

So when will Mandrake release 8.1 for PPC?

Comments

Try Yellowdog

[Improv]

I recently installed YDL 2.1 on my iBook. I've been overall pretty happy with the distribution. It has its high points (nice software included) and its low points (installer didn't install yaboot properly, I had to fix it myself). I'd recommend it to anyone wanting to run Linux on their Mac...

Re:Other Distros

[Carrot007]

is this a figment of my imagination then?

http://www.debian.org/ports/powerpc/

Carrot007.

AS/400 (iSeries) Support Too !

[DigitalDreg]

Remember folks, this just isn't for Macs - it runs on big iron too!

For those of you who are utterly confused - this Suse distribution also runs on IBM's AS/400 (new name is iSeries). Yes, you too can have good old RPG (not "role playing game"!) and COBOL apps running side by side with Linux.

Re:Other Distros

[GiMP]

I have debian running on my G3 Pismo (firewire) powerbook. It is great! I also have a 7100/80 I just aquired and plan to install mkLinux on.

I wouldn't suggest anything but debian for any platform, except maybe slack.. but that doesn't run on PowerPC out of the box :)

And no, installation of debian onto a PowerPC machine wasn't any harder then installing onto an X86 box. I did have a little learning curve when I had to learn the differences between how bootloaders work on newer Macs and X86..

Newer Macs use OpenFirmware, x86 has a bios and boot records, other PowerPC machines use Prep or Chrp, etc.. But that is an expected pitfall when moving to any new platform.

PPC

[Elbereth]

Yeah, so where do I buy a PPC motherboard and CPU?

Re:PPC

[Anonymous Coward]

I think Apple sells them. They come with a lot of extra stuff, though.

Mandrake PPC

[_hAZE_]

Mandrake is currently working on updating their PPC tree. I believe they are going to skip an 8.1 release and focus on an 8.2 release that will (hopefully) coincide with their i586 8.2 release. Testing is open to the public (like all Mandrake releases), you can download the tree from most Mandrake development FTP mirrors. They also have a mailing list that you can subscribe to for those interested in running the PPC port. Check out http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/fdevlists.php3 for the mailing list and http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/cookerdevel.php3 for information on downloading the development tree.