Linux and AltiVec, should I be worried?

[lepidotós]

Trying to decide what OS to use for Sequoyah when it finally gets its own SSD, and a big factor in that is whether AltiVec builds of Debian or BonSlack or Arch exist, or if they're all VMX-free. Or, for that matter, if Velocity Engine vector instructions even speed up the base system that much. I imagine it would have a lot of effect for X and video drivers...

Of course Gentoo would have it, and I'm contemplating it, but I would rather not wait a few days for that to compile if I can avoid it.​

 

[barracuda156]

I would believe Linux kernel supports Altivec: https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v5.10/powerpc/cpu_features.html

 

[lepidotós]

Good to know, thanks! I'll probably go for Crux or Arch then to try to compile what software I can. Though I suppose that could be done with any OS...​

 

[barracuda156]

Good to know, thanks! I'll probably go for Crux or Arch then to try to compile what software I can. Though I suppose that could be done with any OS...​

Why don’t you try some *BSD? Should be closer to macOS.
(FreeBSD 13.x seems to have an issue with multiprocessor PPC systems, just in case.)

 

[lepidotós]

I've got OpenBSD installed on my Sharp PC-MM2 already and am going to install it on my Gigabit Ethernet when I get it working again, FreeBSD's radeon driver is broken on ppc32 (I have a Radeon 9800 Pro installed), and NetBSD seems good too (I like microkernels, and so appreciate that it can be riun that way), but I don't know about hardware support for my specific configuration.
In any case, I'm not looking for something more like macOS. I already daily drive Fedora, and that momentum started with Mandriva 15 years ago, so I'm not in over my head here or anything.​