Linux distro for mac?

[Armagetto]

Hey guys, I have recently been given an old blue Mac PowerPC G3 and am looking to learn Linux on it. I have been told that it is possible to do this and that I just need to find the right distro. Can someone point me in the right direction? Keep in mind, I am a Linux noob lol.

[James]

You might investigate Yellow Dog Linux. I've never used it myself, but I hear it's the way to go for PPC Linux.

[Armagetto]

That looks like a good option, but it's not free, is it? Either way, I like it.

I see that Ubuntu supports PPC platforms. How do you guys feel about Xubuntu? It looks like it might be a good choice because the Mac is older.

[James]

I've used Xubuntu briefly on an amd64 system and it seemed just fine. Normally I use Kubuntu, but they're all pretty much the same aside from the DE.

All Linuxes are free as required by the GPL. Even if someone charging for it, you'll always have the option of getting it for free (at least the source...). Some distros are quite inconvenient to get running with paying for support, etc., but I don't think Yellow Dog is one of them. The download page is here.

[Armagetto]

Sorry to inundate you with noob questions, but I see directions for burning the ISO from Linux, MacOS and OSX, but not Windows. I only have a XP machine to burn it from. Can I just do it in Nero?

[James]

Yeah should be fine to do in Nero.

[Rob Williams]

Let us know how you make out with it. I am curious about knowing how well it works on a Mac. I've been tempted to pick up an iBook for a while..

[Scott]

If that mac computer can run os x relatively well, stick with it. By moving to linux on the PPC platform you gain absolutely nothing, infact you lose your ability to run os x native binaries, which is a huge loss, for me at least. os x has its own terminal, which allows you to install/run just about any linux app thats compatable with the ppc architecture. If you don't like finder (os x's window manager) then you can install KDE, or GNOME, or just about any other linux window manager.

Sorry to rain on your parade, but if that computer can run os x, linux is a waste.
--Scott

EDIT: btw, I don't think that the ppc arch is the best thing to use if you want to "learn" linux, you would be much much better off getting an old computer that a friend/company/relative/school/etc is giving away, because of the amount of distributions and software thats compatable with the x86 arch is immense.

[KohlyKohl]

That is the rudest reply I've ever seen. Anyways Yellow Dog Linux works great on a PPC. Sure there are less programs that work for PPC compaired to x86, but don't let that get you down. One of the biggest draw backs is lack of any 3D acceleration for PPC. I've used it before and most of the programs you'll use everyday are there and run smoothly.