Re: How usable is Debian on PowerBook G4?
Hi Aris,
forget about compiling things. It's all there ready for you to use!
Firefox, etc, but please read the following for a full picture of my
impressions. (I sent the following message on this mailing list a
week or two ago):
I tried installing Debian Lenny onto my iBook G4 recently, just to
see how it works. It was pretty easy to do. You'll have to connect to
the internet with the Ethernet cable at first and then download the
driver for Wifi (you'll find the info on the Ubuntu FAQ mentioned
below). But then, it will work just fine. Sound didn't work at first,
either. But look at the section title "Enable sound with my
Powerbook" on this page: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCFAQ#Enable
sound with my Powerbook. This method did the trick for my iBook, too.
I installed IBM Java, which actually worked very well. The only
things that you can't get are Adobe Flash and Skype. So with YouTube
videos you will either have to download them, or use some scripts to
enable the mplayer or VLC to play them imbedded. This works quite
well for the YouTube site. But, scripts only work for the sites for
which they are written. I couldn't, for example, see any of the flash
videos on the BBC site... And you can forget about using Gnash or
swfdec. They're hopeless. Gnash seems to have the better prospects,
but I couldn't figure out a way of getting the latest version for
PPC, so the version that I was stuck with (the default version
available) was not very good. In the case of Skype, you'll just have
to use Ekiga, or something like that - an open-source one. Great, but
unfortunately everyone I know is on Skype! Overall, I found the
performance of Debian with the Gnome desktop on a G4 iBook a bit
slow, nowhere near as snappy as the OSX Tiger installation. But,
perhaps my 1.3 Mhz processor just isn't enough for Gnome... Maybe the
other window managers/desktops would improve performance... I
tinkered with XFCE a bit, but I didn't feel much difference, to be
honest... You're definitely better off sticking with OSX for daily
use - it's designed specifically for the G4 and so it works well
within its limitations. (That's what I'm using right now).
Still, it's impressive that Debian works on an iBook, but the support
and enthusiasm for the platform just isn't there. Linux on PPC is a
bit depressing if you're just an average user wanting to find out
about Linux. All the time, you're left thinking just how much better
it would be if you had a Intel computer, where the support and
quality of Linux is so good! Linux on the PPC seems to be just for
people wanting to use old PPC computers for servers etc...
Best regards,
Robert.
On 30 Mar 2010, at 22:38, Aris Monazteriaz wrote:
How usable is Debian on PowerBook G4? Can I install programs right
away or
I have to compile them myself? Can I install Firefox with Flash
support?
etc..
Thanks,
Aris
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