Linux on OS X

saurya_s · #1 December 21st, 2003, 03:51 PM

Hi all
I have been using mandrake linux on PC for a while and I love it!!
Now, I am thinking is Linux on G4 powerbook is woth having; Few questions:
So, YDL or mandrake?. With the demise of Red hat, I am not sure how YDL will go.For Mandy PPC , I guess the development is not as fast as for PCs.
rpms are they universal - for PC and mac or do I end up in compiling all softwares myself.
How r things with modem, DVD writer, bluetooth etc?
Any installation advise?
My new Powerbook has MS office etc for which I haven't got CDs, as installed probably from network by IT guys. So I don't want to screw up anything on OS X.
Suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks
SS

1.25 GHz G4 Powerbook with
Superdrive

**Giaguara** · #2 December 21st, 2003, 05:15 PM

Hey, you want to keep your M$ office and install Linux?

OpenOffice rules, man ..

I'd probably go for Mandrake. I haven't tried that on powerbook though, so I have no practical advice for drivers etc.

Trillian · #3 December 21st, 2003, 06:27 PM

I tryed both YDL, and mandrake. They each have advantages and dissadvantges. It realy is just a matter of trying them and seeing if you like them. I didn't realy like how packages were handled on eather of them, which is why I migrated over to gentoo.

Pengu · #4 December 22nd, 2003, 03:55 AM

Red Hat DOES still exist, it just isnt "free" any more, because you can't get the commercial release without support, and the "free" version is supposedly buggy.

I think i read somewhere that SUSE is available for macs (and other PPCs)

powermac · #5 December 22nd, 2003, 10:47 AM

Suse, in my opinion is a good alternative to YD. I played around with both on my old G3. Both installed nicely, YD did not recognize my video card, had trouble config resolution higher 600x400. YD is based on Red Hat. Suse is still available for free download, of course with out tech support.

Viro · #6 December 27th, 2003, 05:17 PM

SUSE seems to be an old version for the PPC, so I guess you'd better stay away from that. Mandrake still hasn't released a PPC version of its latest 9.2 so you might want to wait a while for them to do that.

Of all the Linux distros I've tried, I liked Gentoo the best, and Yellowdog 2nd. You can't take any regular x86 RPMs and install it. I like Gentoo as it makes it very easy to compile from source, something that I end up doing quite a lot because its not as easy to find PPC RPMs.

Give both a try. Gentoo is slightly harder to install, but is well worth it.

powermac · #7 December 27th, 2003, 08:13 PM

Suse has a new version, check the web site.

Viro · #8 December 28th, 2003, 04:59 AM

Went to http://www.suse.com/us/private/downl...nux/index.html. The current version for PPC seems to be 7.3, which on x86 they have already reached 9.0.

IIRC, 7.3 was released in early 2002, so no I don't think that qualifies as current.