Has anybody tried Linux on 68k Macs?

Ariii said:

Hi! I may acquire a classic Macintosh in the future, and would be interested in putting Linux on it? Has anybody here tried Linux on these Macs, such as this:

http://www.mac.linux-m68k.org/

Also, does it take advantage of CISC?

Click to expand...

"CISC" is a description of a class of CPU architectures. By definition any software that runs on a CISC type CPU "takes advantage of it". More technically speaking, Linux is built using the gcc compiler. Gcc is pretty good and will generate pretty good code on the 68K architecture

I wonder what you are going to do with Linux on such a low-end computer. It will run fine but if it will work for your intended use we can't say.

Remind me to Minix ... I run that in the old days on an Atari ST, also M68000. Per-Linux.

I had Debian 2.2 going on my Classic II a few years back. 16MHz 68030, 10MB RAM, 160MB HDD. It was a pretty slow, miserable experience. I remember having to leave it on and going overnight while it was installing. There's no way to boot Linux natively on an Old World ROM Macintosh - you need to start up the Mac OS, then start a loader that hands control over to Linux. It was a blast to do, and I'd totally recommend going for it if you want a good side project! Just don't expect to get the latest Ubuntu release going on it

I had NetBSD on my SE/30 a few years ago. 128 MB RAM, 9 GB hard drive. Took forever to get it loaded on, but ran as a great little server for many years.