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Best Linux OS for Power Mac G4?

vt3c
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Hi! I've got a Power Mac G4 MDD (Dual 1.0ghz, 2GB RAM, fuckton o' harddrives and Radeon 9000 Pro AGP) and Tiger decided it hated life, so I had to format it and install a new OS. I had no restore disk, so I went ahead and used a PowerPC Port of 12.04 for PPC. I had simply forgotten that Unity is a stupid resource hog and the CPU is at a constant 100% usage even when navigating the GUI. I've even seen lag up to Core i5 machines with Unity. 

I've been hearing about Yellow Dog Linux, MintPPC, Lubuntu etc for PowerPC. 

In general, what is the best overall Linux OS for my mac? I need to see this mac get some use. When it had tiger about a year ago, it was absolutely the beast and still held it's own REALLY well!

Eric S. Raymond used an E6600 from 2005 until 12/30/14 or open source software creation. Raw data computations in excess of 18GB each. Core 2 Duos still have tons of life left, my friend.

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For my experience, Windows runs very well on older macs. The newer Linux Distros don;t seem to run that well. 

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Hi! I've got a Power Mac G4 MDD (Dual 1.0ghz, 2GB RAM, fuckton o' harddrives and Radeon 9000 Pro AGP) and Tiger decided it hated life, so I had to format it and install a new OS. I had no restore disk, so I went ahead and used a PowerPC Port of 12.04 for PPC. I had simply forgotten that Unity is a stupid resource hog and the CPU is at a constant 100% usage even when navigating the GUI. I've even seen lag up to Core i5 machines with Unity. 

I've been hearing about Yellow Dog Linux, MintPPC, Lubuntu etc for PowerPC. 

In general, what is the best overall Linux OS for my mac? I need to see this mac get some use. When it had tiger about a year ago, it was absolutely the beast and still held it's own REALLY well!

Mint is the only linux distro i've used that ran well on less than 4GB of RAM, so if i were you, i'd try MintPPC

Linus once unboxed a Toblerone
 

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Be careful not to say "Linus". I seem to have a ridiculous problem of typing "Linus" when I mean "Linux" and "Linux" when I mean "Linus"!

So yeah, Linux Sebastian! LOL :D

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I would try puppy linux. Irs designed for older pcs. ;)

Recovering Apple addict

 

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For my experience, Windows runs very well on older macs. The newer Linux Distros don;t seem to run that well. 

Unfortunately, Windows is designed for Intel-based macs (circa 2005). This is a mac from 2001, using a motorola/IBM PowerPC Apollo 7455 processor. Dual physical processors, at 1 gigahert each.

Eric S. Raymond used an E6600 from 2005 until 12/30/14 or open source software creation. Raw data computations in excess of 18GB each. Core 2 Duos still have tons of life left, my friend.

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For my experience, Windows runs very well on older macs. The newer Linux Distros don;t seem to run that well. 

Windows does not supprot the powerPC architecture that the Power Mac G4 uses

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Hi! I've got a Power Mac G4 MDD (Dual 1.0ghz, 2GB RAM, fuckton o' harddrives and Radeon 9000 Pro AGP) and Tiger decided it hated life, so I had to format it and install a new OS. I had no restore disk, so I went ahead and used a PowerPC Port of 12.04 for PPC. I had simply forgotten that Unity is a stupid resource hog and the CPU is at a constant 100% usage even when navigating the GUI. I've even seen lag up to Core i5 machines with Unity. 

I've been hearing about Yellow Dog Linux, MintPPC, Lubuntu etc for PowerPC. 

In general, what is the best overall Linux OS for my mac? I need to see this mac get some use. When it had tiger about a year ago, it was absolutely the beast and still held it's own REALLY well!

 

I think Ubuntu MATE is the best option for you. MATE has been ported over to PPC and is being tested. The Ubuntu community needs help from people with PPC hardware just like you. 

 

You can get more info at: 

  1. http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2015/01/dust-off-ibook-ubuntu-mate-powerpc-support-coming
  2. https://plus.google.com/111285327879595317710/posts/2dTTB6qBHrA
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I suggest hardware overclocking if you can (in addition to the Linux OS)

"My game vs my brains, who gets more fatal errors?" ~ Camper125Lv, GMC Jam #15

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Try Xubuntu or Elementary OS

The distribution needs to support the PowerPC platform (different CPU architecture than x86). Ubuntu dropped support back during version 6.10 (Edgy Eft) which means all Ubuntu derived variants haven't seen any PowerPC development since 2006. Ubuntu Mate recently stated that they will finally pick up where Ubuntu left off with PowerPC support. So I would recommend that distribution over any other available.

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Fedora Still has active PPC support.

Cinnamon is really good with low memory enviroments.

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Fedora Still has active PPC support.

Cinnamon is really good with low memory enviroments.

Fedora for a presumably new user...

 

train-wreck-o_zps26a90404.gif

 

Really tho Mate sticks to the Gnome 2 feel which also resembles OS X strongly. Especially being an older machine Gnome 3 might be a little heavy on it in comparison to Mate that's designed to be light weight.

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The distribution needs to support the PowerPC platform (different CPU architecture than x86). Ubuntu dropped support back during version 6.10 (Edgy Eft) which means all Ubuntu derived variants haven't seen any PowerPC development since 2006. Ubuntu Mate recently stated that they will finally pick up where Ubuntu left off with PowerPC support. So I would recommend that distribution over any other available.

whoops, totally missed that his mac is powerpc. my bad.

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Fedora for a presumably new user...

 

train-wreck-o_zps26a90404.gif

 

Really tho Mate sticks to the Gnome 2 feel which also resembles OS X strongly. Especially being an older machine Gnome 3 might be a little heavy on it in comparison to Mate that's designed to be light weight.

 

Soooo.... MintPPC

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Posted

Hi! I've got a Power Mac G4 MDD (Dual 1.0ghz, 2GB RAM, fuckton o' harddrives and Radeon 9000 Pro AGP) and Tiger decided it hated life, so I had to format it and install a new OS. I had no restore disk, so I went ahead and used a PowerPC Port of 12.04 for PPC. I had simply forgotten that Unity is a stupid resource hog and the CPU is at a constant 100% usage even when navigating the GUI. I've even seen lag up to Core i5 machines with Unity. 

I've been hearing about Yellow Dog Linux, MintPPC, Lubuntu etc for PowerPC. 

In general, what is the best overall Linux OS for my mac? I need to see this mac get some use. When it had tiger about a year ago, it was absolutely the beast and still held it's own REALLY well!

 

What are you planning on doing with your Mac?

I've picked me up a G4 Mac Mini 1.33GHz PPC variant, and plan on running an in home web/file/torrent/icecast server. It's difficult to choose the linux distribution though because nothing over 12.04 LTS seems to work right, and PPC support isn't mainstream anymore.

 

It's definitely out there though; I'd look into running Arch Linux maybe for a server, no idea what to suggest for everyday use.

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