Re: How usable is Debian on PowerBook G4?
Thanks. Without Adobe Flash? That's a complete turn-off for me. It seems
that it's better keep Tiger on my PowerBook. :-(
On Tue, March 30, 2010 7:14 pm, Robert Chamberlain wrote:
> 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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