Ubuntu or Yellow Dog?

[nerveosu]

I am going to install linux on my aluminum powerbook g4 on a partitioned hard drive. Which should I use? Ubuntu or Yellow Dog? I am not looking to switch to linux.. just play around with it. I have practically no experience with linux. What is the best bet?

 

[besler3035]

I am going to install linux on my aluminum powerbook g4 on a partitioned hard drive. Which should I use? Ubuntu or Yellow Dog? I am not looking to switch to linux.. just play around with it. I have practically no experience with linux. What is the best bet?

Ubuntu is said to be the easiest to learn and use, so I'd choose that. Plus, it looks the nicest.

 

[nerveosu]

cool.. thanks.

 

[Mord]

yellow dog is a dog, no pun intended.

 

[caveman_uk]

Last time I looked linux had real problems with the closed drivers on the Airport extreme card. It may have moved on since then but if the situation's still the same then you'll need a third party wireless card that Linux does support.

 

[benthewraith]

Last time I looked linux had real problems with the closed drivers on the Airport extreme card. It may have moved on since then but if the situation's still the same then you'll need a third party wireless card that Linux does support.

For Intel Macs or PPC Macs?

 

[eva01]

For Intel Macs or PPC Macs?

Both, since it is the same wireless card.

There is no support for the Airport cards so you wont be able to connect to the internet wirelessly under linux

 

[phonemonkey]

Go with ubuntu. I've installed both and besides ubuntu working better, having better support, etc. it gives you more options as far as usage goes

 

[merc669]

This may be of use for trying to get the Airport Cards/Wireless too function;

(LINK) http://penguinppc.org/historical/benh/

Airport driver (version 0.9.3)

Note: This driver is for kernels 2.2.x only. An airport driver is included in my rsync 2.4 kernel


Download Version 0.9.0

Download Version 0.9.1

Download Version 0.9.2

Download Version 0.9.3

This driver is based on the WaveLAN/IEEE PCMCIA driver by by Andreas Neuhaus heavily hacked by me to run on the Apple airport card.
In order to use it, you need a recent kernel (2.2.17pre7 or pre9 should be ok) linked to /usr/src/linux. Make sure you enable support for wireless in the Network Devices section of the kernel config (don't beleive the help text that tells you this option alone does nothing).
Then, compile this module, insmod it with the following command:

insmod airport.o network_name=my_network [enc=key]

You need to replace my_network by the actual network name configured in your airport base station, and key by the hexadecimal WEP key of your base station. You can get this key using Apple's base station admin tool, there's a menu option to get the "Network Equivalent Password" in the "Base Station" menu.
Then, use ifconfig to setup the "airport" interface like an ordinary ethernet interface.

You can find more infos about wireless on linux, including wireless tools, on the following pages:

The WaveLAN/IEEE driver home page
Jean Thourrilhes Wireless pages
Jonathan C. Sevy base station config tool
Harald Roelle Airport on Linux/PPC page


Bill......

 

[bowens]

I've used Ubuntu and Kubuntu (KDE desktop). I go with Ubuntu. You might 'apt-get kde' (I think that's the command) and try out KDE too. You might like it better than Gnome which is the default for Ubuntu.