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Linux on the iMac G4

Posted by timothy on from the swivelly-goodness dept.

Brent Foster writes: "The staff at iMacLinux.net have Linux running on the new flat panel iMac G4s. They have an initial installation guide available here(1). It has several photos of the iMac G4 during the installation as well as cat /proc/cpuinfo. They also have some photos of the unpacking available here(2). The iMac was sponsored by PowerMax, it is nice to see companies sponsoring Linux efforts, especially in the Apple world." John Buswell adds: "It currently works in novideo mode, but we plan on testing newer kernels and XFree 4.2 with nvidia patches later this week."

2 of 235 comments (clear)

  1. In 10 years you'll be glad your Mac runs Linux by ikekrull · · Score: 2, Troll

    Since Apple have a propensity to obsolete their hardware, and OSes rather quickly.

    Look at 68k macs - no longer supported by any current version of the MacOS.

    Look at the Newton - dumped

    Look at Pre-G3 Power Macs - unsupported by OS X, or any Apple Unix

    Look at A/UX - dumped by Apple

    My IIfx, PowerMac 8500, Rev. A iMac, Titanium PowerBook, Duron 750, Celeron 366, dual P-Pro 200, P-133 and Sega Dreamcast will *all* run Linux, and will likely be able to run Linux until their hardware fails.

    Apple can't support their products like the Open Source community can, they seem to be of the opinion that if a machine is more than 2 years old, it is useless and you should buy a new one.

    I, for one, am extremely glad my Macs can run Linux, because I know that when Apple forget me (and they will), the open Source community are still here to support me (and they encourage me to help support myself).

    A huge thank you to the LinuxM68k, LinuxPPC, Linux-SH4 and Linux-x86 coders, you have made such a difference to my computing life.

    --
    I gots ta ding a ding dang my dang a long ling long
  2. Why, why, why? by Hanul · · Score: 0, Troll

    Why should someone ever do something as boring as installing Linux on the new iMac. I assume, if you are into Linux, it is for the stability of a Unix system, and maybe because you are used to it. But you are already running Unix on an iMac, and you are also running a FREE Unix, too. So what's the point of Linux on an iMac. I doesn't run smoothly and the GUI is horrible compared to Aqua.