# Linux on a PowerPC



## TheMailMan78 (Feb 27, 2013)

My father has an old PowerPC G5 that of course no longer has OS support from Apple. Hes been running into a lot of issues lately online and I was thinking of installing Ubuntu on his G5 since its still supported with security updates and such. Has anyone any experience with this kinda thing? I was gonna install 12.10 Quantal Quetzal unless someone has a better suggestion.


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## brandonwh64 (Feb 27, 2013)

I believe Ubuntu will work.

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/quantal/release/lubuntu-12.10-desktop-powerpc.iso


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## TheMailMan78 (Feb 27, 2013)

brandonwh64 said:


> I believe Ubuntu will work.
> 
> http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/quantal/release/lubuntu-12.10-desktop-powerpc.iso



Yeah I know. 12.10 should work but I was wondering if anyone had tried it yet.


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## brandonwh64 (Feb 27, 2013)

TheMailMan78 said:


> Yeah I know. 12.10 should work but I was wondering if anyone had tried it yet.



Not many people have older PowerPC G5's it would be cool though


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## TheMailMan78 (Feb 27, 2013)

brandonwh64 said:


> Not many people have older PowerPC G5's it would be cool though



Im thinking the 12.04 Ubuntu (LTS) might be better for him as it has longer support.


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## Peter1986C (Feb 28, 2013)

Best go for the LTS version because it tends to be less shaky too (some software components not being the latest but something slightly more tried & true).


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## Wrigleyvillain (Feb 28, 2013)

Wow. You know the power savings alone after 6 months would pay for a netbook or something like that.


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## Aquinus (Feb 28, 2013)

Wrigleyvillain said:


> Wow. You know the power savings alone after 6 months would pay for a netbook or something like that.



Thanks for the suggestion but I get the impression that TMM won't be getting rid of it and that we wants suggestions that will make it work rather than how to spend more money in the short term. I would want to use a G5 over a netbook more often than not.



TheMailMan78 said:


> Im thinking the 12.04 Ubuntu (LTS) might be better for him as it has longer support.



LTS all the way, even more so for people who aren't as tech savvy. When updates get pushed out you want to make sure that they're solid and LTS helps with that.


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## fisheater (Feb 28, 2013)

*Linux for PowerPC*

Links:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/iwhack/
http://www.debian.org/ports/powerpc/
I'm no  for ubuntu; why not go with something designed for PowerPC?


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## Easy Rhino (Feb 28, 2013)

Wrigleyvillain said:


> Wow. You know the power savings alone after 6 months would pay for a netbook or something like that.



this is very true. a lot of people want to keep their old machines running to save money but in all reality a more efficient netbook would save the most money over time.


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## Mindweaver (Feb 28, 2013)

Nothing wrong with a G5 it has plenty of power. In it's time, it was considered so fast that it should be illegal to have that much power in a mac. Jokingly of course.. But if it was me I would get him a atom base pc, and be done with it. You can build one pretty cheap. 

Atom

Atom board - $79
Ram - $20
ITX Case w/ powersupply - $60
Hardrive - $40-$60


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## Wrigleyvillain (Feb 28, 2013)

Aquinus said:


> Thanks for the suggestion but I get the impression that TMM won't be getting rid of it and that we wants suggestions that will make it work rather than how to spend more money in the short term. I would want to use a G5 over a netbook more often than not.



Yeah well I actually had a G5 from work that was a relative dog for needing to eat 450 watts. Of course he doesn't _want_ to swap it out but he should.


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## TheMailMan78 (Feb 28, 2013)

This is for a 66 year old disabled veteran guys. He like the big screen I gave him and the big keyboard. A netbook just aint gonna work for him. This old G5 works fine. Its just got a dated OS and I want to try and help him. If he or I could afford a new computer for him I would. But I need something in reason.


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## Wrigleyvillain (Feb 28, 2013)

I hear ya...I guess I am still just pissed that thing used so much power and as a result I had to get rid of mine. The latest Ubuntu that will install is probably the way to go. Keep it as user friendly as possible.


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## Jstn7477 (Feb 28, 2013)

I ran Ubuntu on an iMac G3 350MHz boat anchor about 5 years ago because I managed to crash the OS 9.1 within a few hours of even having the computer, and it needed some stupid prom update to run OS X >10.1 and it could only be done from 9.1 which was pretty retarded. Never was able to obtain a copy of 9.1 so I tried whatever PowerPC Ubuntu release was out 5 years ago and it worked extremely slow and of course there was no proper video driver support for the ATI Rage 128 it had. Perhaps you'll have better luck with your G5.


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## Peter1986C (Mar 1, 2013)

Graphics support has improved vastly over the last 5 years in Linux land.


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