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Linux Distributions for Powerbooks?

Posted by Cliff on from the penguins-and-apples dept.

sol2k asks: "I just got myself a G4 Powerbook 12' and I am still amazed at the thing. Mac OS X is beatiful and sometimes even too intuitive for someone crossing from the Windows world. I had some nice experiences with Linux on Intel machines but would love to try out a Linux on the Powerbook and make use of the great hardware. Here's a simple question: What are my options? I know about Yellow Dog (old and doesn't seemt to be updated often), Debian/PPC (a bit too much time to set up than what I have available) and Mandrake (9.1 - that's really old). What Linux adventures have you had on your Mac?"

3 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. Gentoo by SirPrize · · Score: 5, Informative

    :-) Well, I've installed Gentoo on a G3 - and it works fairly well. Only problem I ever had was the Firewire card. Everything else worked. (Including the sound card). Mac-On-Linux (MOL) is also really fun - run MacOSX INSIDE of Linux.

    1. Re:Gentoo by SirPrize · · Score: 5, Informative

      Here's the link to Mac-on-Linux, along with the screenshots.

  2. The difference by Otter · · Score: 4, Informative
    In my experience, the big advantage Yellow Dog has is that their Mac focus means that Mac-specific bells and whistles (pbbuttonsd or Mac-On-Linux, for example) are much more likely to be provided and installed with sensible defaults. You get a polished system much more readily. I've had lousy luck with Mandrake and SuSE, but as always with Linux, YMMV.

    Any idea what the schedule is for the next Yellow Dog release? The current version is ages old by now.

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