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juusan · Jan 5, 2004, 03:00 AM

anyone here installed yellow dog linux on their old beige mac? thoughts?

johnMG · Jan 5, 2004, 08:23 PM

I installed it on a G3 "Pismo" Firewire PowerBook before switching to Debian, and then finally switching to OS X. YDL uses KDE as the default desktop (rather than Gnome -- which is not what you'd expect, since YDL is a Redhat-based distro). In fact, I think I recall it having some sort of problem if you try to *not* install KDE.

It uses the same nice Redhat Anaconda installer. I might go back to YDL someday...

si_lance · Jan 6, 2004, 11:48 PM

It'll work great. It will breathe life into the old beige mac. Being based on Redhat (and as mentioned, using the anaconda installer) is very much a boon. Do it, you won't regret it, and it'll run circles around Apple OS.

Chris O'Brien · Jan 7, 2004, 04:15 PM

I've always heard that linux is much faster than OSX on the same hardware, so I installed Mandrake 9.1 (bamboo). For me, it's slower than panther, both to use and to boot, which is the opposite of what I expected... Ah well.

powerbook867 · Jan 9, 2004, 11:41 AM

I'm debating going to yellow dog on an old B&W G3 I bought for cheap (200) that was used in a lab barely at all. I want a file server in the house for backing up and sharing music/photos/movies with the wife. I have the iso's on my G5 hard drive, I just haven't gotten around to setting the box up... I'll try and do it tonight while Im watching a movie and report back on the performance.. It's a g3 350 w/256 ram and a 20 gig drive...

I just notice you said beige machine...DOOH!

bluedog · Jan 9, 2004, 03:13 PM

Originally posted by powerbook867:
I'm debating going to yellow dog on an old B&W G3 I bought for cheap (200) that was used in a lab barely at all. I want a file server in the house for backing up and sharing music/photos/movies with the wife. I have the iso's on my G5 hard drive, I just haven't gotten around to setting the box up... I'll try and do it tonight while Im watching a movie and report back on the performance.. It's a g3 350 w/256 ram and a 20 gig drive...

I just notice you said beige machine...DOOH!

A friend did just the same thing, it will run and boot panther no problem. I've even gotten panther to run on a beige G3 with the great installer app XPostFacto.

OSX is a bit slow on this class of machine, but definitely useable as a file/music/media server. You may want to make sure you have a 100base-T network card (I don't recall what the built-in was for the beige-G3 but I think it was 10base-T).

Older computer hardware is GREAT for these type of projects. If anyone has an older machine around. I recommend buying/downloading a linux version to try it out. A technically adept person can have it installed without too much trouble. A newbie may want some assistance.

alfredo · Jan 9, 2004, 08:28 PM

Originally posted by Black Book:
I've always heard that linux is much faster than OSX on the same hardware, so I installed Mandrake 9.1 (bamboo). For me, it's slower than panther, both to use and to boot, which is the opposite of what I expected... Ah well.

I found Mandrake to be pretty but seemed slow. It worked well though.

YellowDog is the best in my opinion.

I love OSX, but like having YDL on older machines.

johnMG · Jan 9, 2004, 09:06 PM

I've always heard that linux is much faster than OSX on the same hardware, so I installed Mandrake 9.1 (bamboo). For me, it's slower than panther, both to use and to boot, which is the opposite of what I expected...

Yes. Linux & X11 with Gnome or KDE on top of them will be slow. However, ditch Gnome/KDE and try IceWM or FluxBox (or a similar light/fast WM) and you won't believe how much faster it is.

si_lance · Jan 10, 2004, 12:47 AM

... add Enlightenment to that list of light WMs, and if it's a server you don't need more than TWM.

vsurfer · Jan 10, 2004, 05:54 PM

Originally posted by si_lance:
... add Enlightenment to that list of light WMs, and if it's a server you don't need more than TWM.

How about add fine minimalist Windowmaker to that list of wm's too . . .

dot_nix · Jan 11, 2004, 04:59 AM

I am actually working on a project right now on installing Gentoo Linux on a beige powermac 233MHz 32 MB ram 4 gig hard drive.

I know I should upgrade the RAM but I wann see how gentoo will do. I would recommend gentoo because of it's excellent package management system.

Oh and I almost forgot a really important thing. It is a source based distribution. Basically it will compile the whole distro when you install it (i think i am correct on this one).
What this means is it will run a lot faster since it is compiled specifically for your machine.

There package system portage is also source based.

Basically you get the most out of you system.

Chris O'Brien · Jan 11, 2004, 12:13 PM

Yeah, I use KDE with Mandrake, and I'd assumed it was the window manager being slow, not necessarily linux.

As for yellowdog - that was the first linux version I downloaded (about 8months ago, now) but I've never installed it because of the whole 'more than one harddrive' problem with it. I know there's a way round it, but i can't be bothered really

Ah well - off to try a different WM.

DaBeav · Jan 12, 2004, 06:44 PM

I put Yellow Dog on my old Rev/A iMac and it runs well. My primary complaint (which is hardly Terrasoft's fault) is that platform bigotry toward x86 extends forth even to Linux. But, Yellow Dog installed easily (only 1 HD) and works pretty well. Running MOL is a trip, I love it.

I haven't tried any of the other LinuxPPC distros, so I can't really comment on those.