xubuntu on old Ibook G4 ppc

[loudog23]

Hello everyone,

One of my student friend has an ibook G4 ppc, 800mhz 256mg-ram.
I'm slowly tring to pull her toward linux. Looking around the web, i cam to the conlusion that Xubuntu 8.04 lts would be the best option for her 'low' power-pc.

It seems that no 'xubuntu-8.04.1-desktop-powerpc.iso' can be found on the web (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCDownloads, googled and torrented)).... the point would be to let her try it out on the live cd first.
So the only 2 other option i found are:
9.04 jaunty (prolly way too much for this little guy)
or down to 7.10, but i think the security upgraded are no loger available.

you have any other option?
you have any personnal experience on the same machine?
I did some research, im just looking for more option and/or info.

thx all
lou

[x33a]

here it is

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/po...aunty/release/

[loudog23]

here it is

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/po...aunty/release/

it won;t be to 'heavy' for a little 800mhz, 256m-ram?
she still what something running smooth and quick for browsing, music and office (i know office i a bit heavy tho)

[stream303]

I'm glad you brought this up - Xubuntu isn't really the lightest option - Debian's XFCE release is more appropriate.

However, you can pare down an Xubuntu installation to be a bit more reasonable - see this excellent Xubuntu article recently seen on DistroWatch:

http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?is...090504#feature

I often see Xubuntu touted as the cure-all for low-memory systems, when a default install is really anything but light.

Although the article deals with 9.04, the overall concepts apply to earlier versions of Xubuntu as well.

[x33a]

or you could install arch + xfce on your friend's pc, but it wouldn't be the best solution for a newcomer to linux.

[mkvnmtr]

256Mb will not be enough to run a live disk. If you can install as little as 256Mb more that machine will be fine for Ubuntu. The install is easy and ram is cheap. If that is not an option a minimal Ubuntu install with xfce4 for a desktop is good. Xubuntu is not a light distro.

[stream303]

or you could install arch + xfce on your friend's pc, but it wouldn't be the best solution for a newcomer to linux.

True. Being dropped into a root shell prompt and then trying to figure out where to go next with mac-fdisk, laying out filesystems, etc could be daunting.

However, the docs are great if one is up for a little reading and wants to control every aspect of their machine. Like me. Although i will fess up and say that I haven't installed Arch on my ppc box (runs great on my X86_64) - but it can be done if you have a G3 or G4 - G5's are out for the time being - but the 64-bit toolchain looks very promising in the near future for G5's..

[loudog23]

I wanna make it as simple as i can for her, auto-logon, 'click-clik your on the net' type of thing.

So far, ubuntu with minimal stuff looks like the best option for her.
Thank you all for all the usefull information!