Powermac G5 recommended Linux distro?

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Level 3

680 points

Powermac G5 recommended Linux distro?

Hi the upcoming Fedora core 5 PPC looks good. Anyone have any other recommendations for a Linux distro for the powermac? I'm looking for replies of those running Linux on the powermac G5. Thanks.

Dual 2Ghz Powermac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.5) Logic 7.2

Posted on Mar 13, 2006 9:01 PM

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Answer 1

Bill Scott

Level 6

11,465 points

Mar 13, 2006 10:23 PM in response to linuxuser

Ubuntu.

I did this for fun, and run Ubuntu on PCs, but may I ask why you would run linux on a G5? I just don't get it.

Ubuntu is a very nice linux distribution that is 100% free. You can download live demo and install disks for either GNOME or KDE. You can do the former and then update to the latter using the debian package management system and a very nice graphical interface to it called synaptic.

Ubuntu was recommended to me here and I really like it.

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Answer 2

Camelot

Level 9

58,575 points

Mar 14, 2006 2:04 AM in response to linuxuser

Also take a look at Yellow Dog Linux, it's a Linux distribution specifically for PowerPC-based Macs.

No offense to the other guys, but sometimes I wonder if some of the other distros can spell PPC, let alone run on it. The guys at TerraSoft have done a lot of work in taking out much of the pain of getting Linux running on a Mac.

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Answer 3

linuxuser Author

Level 3

680 points

Mar 14, 2006 9:24 AM in response to Bill Scott

Thanks for the help. I'll try these both out. I'm somewhat of a Linux-fanatic. I just got my powermac G5 and want to see how the latest 2.6 kernel runs with G5 optimizations.

Dual 2Ghz Powermac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.5) Logic 7.2

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Answer 4

Mar 14, 2006 3:20 PM in response to linuxuser

I would like to recommend Debian Etch net install. You may also have heard it referred to as Debian Testing or simply testing. You could also use Sarge but since it's the stable version of Debian it doesn't get updated as often as Etch or Unstable do. Things like the latest version of KDE usually take a while to get backported to Sarge & sometimes installing backports can be a bit tricky too. That's why Etch is a better choice for most people as it's somewhat easier to use than Sarge (especially in terms of package managment).

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