New to forum (quick "?" for PowerPC user)

[Macinstosh]

My powerpc with dual core 2.3GHz processor is work horse of a tower. Thus far, this expensive machine with 2GB ram, which cost a lot more about 12 years ago when I bought it is still in good shape (memory, maybe not CPU, and I've changed out hard drives a few times but nothing else hardware) I really enjoy the tower So basically, what I want to do if it is possible is find a simple upgrade to some of the software (3rd party as well as Mac) that goes beyond just Tiger, with either Leopard, which seems doable, or more like to Snow Leopard (intel based, which seems like a challenge).

Is there a back-ported adaptation of the intel based software by Macintosh for the previous generations of cpu architectures that was the powerpc?

Another solution I may be trying in the meantime would be a virtualization but I wonder how well that will work (it will probably slow down a whole bunch to have to emulate that from an older machine like the powerpc).

My alternatives are to do away with the Mac OS X that is installed for the system, which is just like starting over, with a port of Debian or slackware that can install on the powerpc as well :<>.

Please help me to figure out the answer, as I believe that digging up the information I need from looking online is bound to be more confused than just asking about what is the answer to the issue I raise about ported between intel and powerpc processor types. I'm sure if that does exist that it took someone a very long time, to say the least. Thanks.

 

[keysofanxiety]

Nope, no Intel port. Leopard only is the latest OS supported.

 

[pl1984]

I'm not quite sure what you're asking so may comments may be off the mark but here they are:

• Leopard is the last PPC version of OS X that Apple released. Given the significant differences between the two architectures no amount of tweaking will enable later versions of the OS to run on PPC.
• Some software was made available for PPC and Intel post transition to Intel. Therefore some software that post dates the change can be run on PPC because the developer made a PPC version available.
• Let the software define the platform you use. If the software you have meets your needs then stay with it. If not, and a PPC version for a later version is unavailable, then move to the Intel platform. Mac Pro 1,1 - 1,3 are fairly inexpensive these days so moving to the Intel platform won't cost much (especially in the case of the 1,1).
• For detailed PPC related questions I highly recommend posting in the PPC forum. Those guys almost know as much about PPC as Apple.

 

[Macinstosh]

Nope, no Intel port. Leopard only is the latest OS supported.

So to answer that, I am very upset about it being as such, and would hope that soon through proper virtualization software I might be looking to test some things out using the emulator of an intel chip while being on a powerpc processor (don't know enough about the virtualized software programs to know if that is possible really though).

And in terms of pl1984 your suggested route sounds like a reasonable thing, so to attack from that angle, the issue is with the browsers I am using and playing flash movies in general. I would love to not have to rebuild an entire system ported backwards but these are the things I'm struglling with...
1) Slow use of Safari, Firefox, and other similar browsers...IDK, maybe there are some basic Unix programs that can take the place of these browsers and that would build fine on the Mac...anything that might work to help make the browsing a bit less resource intensive as well.

2) Access to the latest web technology for videos, including flash which unfortunately seems like a limitation of the Operating system that I cannot use even a recent enough version of flash to just play some streams of videos. Perhaps someone will have a solution for both these problems for me, and it will prolong my now 10+ year run with the tower I have (G5 powerpc).


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So to answer that, I am very upset about it being as such, and wonder if you believe that the possibility for a work around (with virtualization software might be worthwhile looking into)??

 

[orph]

id look at picking up a cheep PC or macmin if your only using the web to watch videos.
if possible pick up a computer with a i3/5/7 depending on budget, try not to buy a older Intel system.

the one workaround i know for G5 watching videos online is to DL them then play them in VLC.
for not flash video (under 1080p) the G5 is fine but if you want a modern browser you will have to get a newer computer.

you may have luck with some form of lunix or something but i not shore what PPC support is like.

are you already on tenfourfox ?
http://www.floodgap.com/software/tenfourfox/
i was using my G5 for media player till a few years back used ten fox on it.

 

[AidenShaw]

So to answer that, I am very upset about it being as such...

I understand your pain - but the simple fact of the matter is that all software and hardware comes with the implicit notion of an "end-of-life" date.

Apple announced the abandonment of the PPC architecture about 12 years ago.

You could get a NUC or Mini-Mac that is much faster than the PPC for a small price (and for far less electricity usage).

 

[CapnDavey]

10.5.8 is it for you but you can download 104 fox its a forked browser that still works.oldapps has some stuff to and PPCU has a lot of good info or get a used 4,1 Mac pro and your done

 

[DearthnVader]

Fadora still has PPC_64 support that will run on the G5. That's likely the best thing you can do with an old G5. At least you'd have a web browser with https support.

You can emulate other PPC OS's, including OS X, maybe OS 9, with KVM support in Qemu-system-ppc. KVM will give you, pretty much, native CPU support.

The is generic IOMMU( PCI Passthough ) but no VFIO for Linux PPC.

 

[orph]

any cheep PC/mac will be faster by a lot.

if it's an offline box it's less of a problem but going online is just a problem, i know i tried to keep using my G5 for to long as a spare computer and it's just broken on websites it's that simple security and every thing is just to dated.

macmin/NUC will be cheep and faster & if you want linux just stick that on the macmin/NUC