Anyone interested in Open Source and powerpc?

The issues I have is with Debian are as follows:

1. Open source video drivers that don't really work. It made me go back from Debian on my Xserve to OS X 10.5... Open Source video drivers really are are the case of developers poking around in the dark without a flashlight. I don't blame them, they do the best with what they have, but it doesn't work well enough.
2. Software Centre and lack of apps/repositories... Comparing the x86/AMD64 software centre to the PPC one.
3. File fragmentation... EXT3 brings it to a whole new level.

I'm sure I'll think of more later, but these issues made me go back to OS X Leopard and delete my Linux partition on my G5.

But if you want to run the latest version of Firefox and Thunderbird rather than Camino then Linux is an answer. There again Office 2008 is still better than Libre Office/Open Office.

The real area where this will make a difference is a smaller footprint with low power machines.

 

the ideal ppc linux....

...would be portable, lightweight, no, very lightweight. PPC macs aren't getting any younger or faster. MintPPC (which is Debian with the LXDE desktop chopped off Mint and slapped on) comes close to being lightweight, but not really.

We really need a Puppy or Bohdi on our side of the fence. Puppy has many different distros (Saluki, macpup, Wary, Racy, Slacko etc) for older vs newer hardware, a very talented and active user base and forum that is constantly making new "pets". For the uninitated pets are software installs of the very latest Chrome, the latest Opera, the latest flash, or youtube browsing apps, custom built for older hardware and kernels. There is nothing remotely comparable to Puppy.

Bodhi Linux PPC would be almost ideal for G3 and G4 macs. E17 runs extremely well on old hardware, and is even vaguely mac like. Midori....is a sweet, sweet little webkit browser. The Bohdi website based software installer is so brilliant its a wonder no one has done it before. You can install an entire lightweight suite of apps for older hardware, and a heavier suite for newer, faster hardware. Brilliant, fracking briliant.

I know, I should do it, but I don't have the time or skillz to put together a PPC linux distro. I've tried. Its WAY harder than it looks. Hats off to linuxjopemac and OS911 over at mintppc.org for keeping that distro going.

 

As I noted, video drivers for the most part are reverse engineered so it really is developers poking around in the dark without a flashlight in order to get things to work. This is why the ATi/Nvidia Open Source drivers are not brilliant. They will do what you need to do, which is fine for the most part where Linux is used... servers... A server admin will put up with poorly implemented drivers if it displays screen content.

Unless you know someone who is going to release the source code for old ATi/Nvidia drivers then it really is working with the people who develop the free drivers to come up with a better solution and sharing with everyone your /etc/xorg.conf files that work the best for your setup and really developing a tight database of this for every Mac you can.

Other than that if you run a desktop Mac its time to upgrade to a card that is better supported in the Linux community, but this may be harder than you think due to being on the PPC arch. Both AMD's (ATi) and Nvidia's drivers are closed source so they can't be ported to PPC. Your stuck between a rock and a hard place unless you can find a video card with open source drivers you can compile for PPC.

I know of exactly zero video cards with PPC drivers from the card manufacturer, but if you find one then I'm all ears. Unfortunately, however... hardware support is largely ignored outside of the x86/AMD64 realms unless its open source.

This is why I stated I'm still using OS X, because despite the drivers being closed source, there are actually binary drivers out there that do work and can handle just about everything you need to do. Until OS X support really tails off the issues with Linux drivers make it a difficult proposition to use Linux as a daily usage OS.

Don't get wrong, I wish the case was different, but with the way AMD and Nvidia work with Linux this is never going to be the case.

 

Hmm... Apparently 3DFX cards may work and give you accelerated support, although I don't have a 3DFX card to test.

 

I guess newer kernels don't have accelerated drivers for 3Dfx cards.
3Dfx cards are "rare" and pricey this days,and most of the "good ones" (Voodoo 5 gen) mac cards have been converted to pc.
I have 2 Voodoo 2 12Mb and a Voodoo 3 3000 (pc).OSX doesn't have "accelerated" drivers for them, only OS9.
I guess more than a linux distro, we need opensource software for mac.

 

That is another issue when you compare the software centre for PPC vs that for x86/AMD64 BUT then theres all the open source stuff that by rights you should be able to compile unless its poorly coded and relies on some specific API from another CPU arch.

So despite the limited amount of binaries there are out there for PPC there is a world of open source packages out there. You've just got to learn how to make them...

 

The open source radeon driver works well for ATI cards. It's the Nvidia drivers that are a problem.

You don't have to make anything. They're already pre-compiled as .deb packages.

 

Not everything again you missed my point.