PowerMac G4 400Mhz questions

[madmetal]

well i am about to buy a PowerMac G4 at 400Mhz with 512 ram , 60gb hdd and 64mb vga.
i will only buy it if i am sure that i can install ubuntu linux..
can anyone tell me if gnome or xfce is ok? and if there are any problems..
thanks :)

[grazie]

The only thing that I know of that can sometimes stop Linux being installed on a Mac is the CD/DVD rom. I've not got your machine, but I don't think you'll have a problem. However, i doubt anyone would give you a gurantee. I've installed 2 different Linux distros on a B&W G3 and a MDD G4. The G3 was a bit tricky, but I still succeeded.

[madmetal]

thanks for reply..
well what really matters for me is the 400Mhz which is a bit slow even for a G4 , and that PPC support is going to stop as mac moved to intel cpu.

[grazie]

OS X on that machine wouldn't be great, but I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by something like Xubuntu. Specific development for PPC Ubuntu has ceased but there will be further PPC releases and Dapper will be maintained for quite a while yet. There are other distros of course, so it's well worth reading up on those too, but I'd say Ubuntu was still the best place to start.

[madmetal]

i know that Xubuntu will be the best solution but i dont know how good ppc xubuntu is..
all i want is to be fast and use it for browsing , skype , and mp3 player..

[grazie]

A Skype client for PPC Linux is not available. You may have some success running it under an x86 virtual machine. Also there's no PPC Linux flash player/plugin if that's important to you.

[madmetal]

well thats why i opened this thread to know what ppc xubuntu lacks of..
there is no skype but i guess there is ekiga, right?
no flash maybe a problem but i guess i can live without it..
i think gimp firefox gaim are fine huh?

[rol1]

What G4 Powermac has only a 400mhz processor?

[madmetal]

What G4 Powermac has only a 400mhz processor?


G4/400 (Sawtooth) introduced 1999.10.13

there is also a 350Mhz G4..
but i never had a mac before thats why i am asking about..

[didg]

A G4/400 with 512MB is ok even for Ubuntu not only Xubuntu.

Of course no skype and no way to run it in MOL, too slow, don't know about ekiga my mic is broken, it doesn't work in OSX either.

64 MB vga, what it is? nv or ati? Does matter for opengl (free flash player)

Don't know about java.

[madmetal]

ok so there is a free flash player..
i will ask for the vga type..

[didg]

Yes but it's a work in progress and a lot of stuff don't work, yet.

[seatea]

I have a PowerMac G4 400 Mhz Gigabit ethernet, 1 Gb RAM. I waited a long time to run Mac OS X on it out of fear of performance problems. I had used ubuntu for a few months prior to that time. I really didn't have any serious complaints about speed issues with ubuntu, I ran Dapper and Edgy. When I finally upgraded to Mac OS X, I was surprised at how well it performed. Mac OS X is faster than ubuntu in my opinion. I eventually upgraded to an OWC Mercury Extreme G4 1.2 GHz, but while it is faster, I can't say that the speed increase was anything astonishing. With all the concerns surrounding the discontinuation of support for Ubuntu PPC, I am planning on ratcheting back to Dapper since it will have some official support for a few more years. I am starting to question the continuing use of Ubuntu though.