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Modern PowerPC

O

OneMoreMacUser

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 23, 2013
30
0
Central Ohio
I have been looking at this section of the Mac Rumors form for a while, and it's awsome seeing all these old macs still being used!
I have noticed that these computers still have a lot of power and are capable of doing many things!

I wanted to know if there was any possible way to get modern versions of applications like Java 7, photoshop, etc... Working on these macs!?

Would it be possible for a linux distro to have these things? Could you "virtualize" an Intel processor or something?
I have a program that allows me to run XP on my PPC mac, XP ran on intel processors, right?:confused:
Also some people have AMD hackintoshes by replacing the kernel so the OS can boot, why wouldn't that work with PowerPC?

I don't know if this post really does anything, it would just be really cool to get these awsome old machines to do newer things. These machines are very capable, have decent processing power, and last a long time. I still think they should be used, and should have modern programs to go with them!:D
 
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Nope. Java 6 doesn't even work on those Macs, not to mention Java 7... Photoshop works though, at least up to CS3 (EDIT: CS4).

Your program to use XP under a PowerPC Mac virtualizes an Intel processor, which is really slow and not practical for the vast majority of situations. AMD hackintoshes are x86 PCs running a x86-compiled OS. PowerPC is a RISC architecture, completely different (it uses a different set of instructions, reduced, so it's more efficient). Given the different architecture it's impossible to get it running without the original Apple source code.
 
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OneMoreMacUser said:
I wanted to know if there was any possible way to get modern versions of applications like Java 7, photoshop, etc... Working on these macs!?
Click to expand...
Define modern please.

I can run Adobe Photoshop CS4, Illustrator CS4, InDesign CS4, Adobe Acrobat 9.4.5 Pro with Enfocus Pitstop Pro 11, Office 2008 and TenFourFox 24 (equivalent of Firefox 24) on my PowerPC Macs. Is that modern enough, or is modern within the last six months?

OneMoreMacUser said:
Would it be possible for a linux distro to have these things?
Click to expand...
Modern apps? See above…

Note that the distros for PowerPC Mac pale in comparison to the ones you'd find for PC. They are all in a development stage and are missing many things.

OneMoreMacUser said:
Could you "virtualize" an Intel processor or something? I have a program that allows me to run XP on my PPC mac, XP ran on intel processors, right?:confused:
Click to expand...
Yes. It's called VirtualPC and based on your statement you already have it. VPC allows you to run Windows on a PowerPC Mac. If you have a PowerPC Mac you need this app to run Windows and Windows apps. You cannot run Windows natively on a PowerPC Mac.

OneMoreMacUser said:
Also some people have AMD hackintoshes by replacing the kernel so the OS can boot, why wouldn't that work with PowerPC?
Click to expand...
Because the PowerPC chip is made by Motorola/IBM and has a completely different instruction set than Intel chips. Both PowerPC and Intel processors are processors. But they do things in an entirely different way. You cannot expect PowerPC chips to process Intel instructions. They do not speak the same language. If they did there would have been no reason for Apple to abandon PowerPC.

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Andropov said:
Photoshop works though, at least up to CS3.
Click to expand...
CS4.

If you use the master install app to install you will be informed that it's Intel only. But that's only because there ARE certain apps in the suite that require an Intel processor.

Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Flash and InDesign CS4 (and some of the other apps in the suite) are still universal and if you install them individually they will run on both PowerMac G4s and G5s (although some of the more intensive apps such as Flash CS4 or Fireworks CS4 do require a G5 processor).
 
Thanks for the replies! Well, I hope eventually we can go back to PowerPC processors. Even though they take up a lot of evergy and get hot they still seem to be faster/more efficient in code than Intels processors.:D
 
We won't see PowerPC on a Mac again. We might see ARM processors, which are also RISC, but that won't happen in the near future. Give it 10 years and we'll see... unless Intel redoes again the instruction set as he did to beat the PowerPC processors, ARM is coming fast.
 
For the time, yes they were.

But as soon as Intel decided to give up on the "GHz Race" and started to focus more on architectural enhancements and power consumption improvements the PowerPC architecture couldn't keep up.

It ran to hot, to slow, to power hungry compared to what Intel was doing with their Pentium M/Core series.

I still love PPC though. :p
 
I could see a world where Tablets get powerful enough do "take over" laptops and tablets stay arm and desktops go PowerPC, but that's just me dreaming :)
 
Andropov said:
Nope. Java 6 doesn't even work on those Macs, not to mention Java 7... Photoshop works though, at least up to CS3 (EDIT: CS4).

Your program to use XP under a PowerPC Mac virtualizes an Intel processor, which is really slow and not practical for the vast majority of situations. AMD hackintoshes are x86 PCs running a x86-compiled OS. PowerPC is a RISC architecture, completely different (it uses a different set of instructions, reduced, so it's more efficient). Given the different architecture it's impossible to get it running without the original Apple source code.
Click to expand...

Dude, HOW DOES NOBODY KNOW THAT JAVA 6 WAS IN BETA FOR THE POWERPC!?????? I looked it up! Flash also works to. Don't believe me? Okay. Here is the Flash 11.5 download link: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4781929 What did I say!? Time to start the I was right dance.:p (Not meant to be mean, I just wanted to make a point)
 
Namija said:
Dude, HOW DOES NOBODY KNOW THAT JAVA 6 WAS IN BETA FOR THE POWERPC!?????? I looked it up! Flash also works to. Don't believe me? Okay. Here is the Flash 11.5 download link: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4781929 What did I say!? Time to start the I was right dance.:p (Not meant to be mean, I just wanted to make a point)
Click to expand...

Please stop with the Flash player 11 and Java 6 on PowerPC. From your link's oringal link there's this text:
After a little bit of tweaking I've managed to get Flash to spoof a version number of 11.5.502...
Click to expand...

Note the word spoof. This means that it is not actually Flash player 11.5 for PowerPC, but a faked version. It cannot run any of the new Flash applications that require technologies introduced with Flash player 11 or new, because it is still Flash player 10.2 code that powers it. With Java, Apple and Oracle never included a JavaVM 1.6 binary that was able to to run on a PowerPC system. All of them, even in public betas, have been Intell only.
 
There is pretty much zero chance we will see PowerPC machines in the consumer world. IBM may still use them in servers, but Intel/ARM/AMD have control over the consumer world and it's very unlikely to change in the future.

The PowerPC was nice, but it's not for consumers anymore.

Apple discontinued the PPC versions and probably removed the code from their codebase. They are not going to go back; it's finished.
 
old-wiz said:
There is pretty much zero chance we will see PowerPC machines in the consumer world. IBM may still use them in servers, but Intel/ARM/AMD have control over the consumer world and it's very unlikely to change in the future.

The PowerPC was nice, but it's not for consumers anymore.

Apple discontinued the PPC versions and probably removed the code from their codebase. They are not going to go back; it's finished.
Click to expand...

PowerPC was beyond nice during its time. The problem was the Intel figured out they can't just keep pimping clock speeds to ridiculous levels, but rather needed to figure out how to do more with less. I believe that's how the core architecture got started.

The moment Intel started to make their chips act like PPC chips (but not be PPC chips) while PowerPC stagnated yet again, PowerPC was doomed.

Probably the best bet Apple-wise for more modern items for PPC would be for someone to massively hack iOS to run on PowerPC. I fear that would be unfortunately slow. Outside of Apple, our hope lies most likely with MorphOS. It won't be Linux.
 
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So question...Arm processors are risc based, would it be possible to use the fact that iOS is a version of the OS x kernel written for A class processors and Arm processors, to bridge the gap, and recompile the general OS X to run on PPC processors? Or perhaps recompile the current version of the kernel to be a universal binary?
 
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