Have been using Ubuntu on my Apple Powermac (G4) since Ubuntu Breezy. Ubuntu recently (as of Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty) decided to drop support for the ppc platform, although, if I understand correctly, they will still make packages, but they won't delay launches because of ppc bugs. I tried upgrading to Ubuntu feisty and I encountered some severe bugs (performance was greatly reduced, system sometimes failed to boot). I am downgrading the system back to ubuntu edgy, but should I condsider changing distros? I am comfortable with Ubuntu's packaging system and am somewhat afraid of moving to rpms (I tried Fedora back when it was fedora core 1, and I hated that I had to fix all the dependencies on my own). Has Fedora gotten better with dependencies? Simply, should I stay with Ubuntu Edgy and not upgrade, or switch to another distro, and if so, which one?

Thanks for any help.

szim90

Debian supports PPC

Debian supports many architectures and doesn't plan to drop support for them. Because of their diverity in Architecture they tend to move a bit slower than other distros, but Debian is rock solid.

This is another vote for Debian Etch on your Powermac.

Alternately you can search Distrowatch by architecture for PPC.

I vote for Debian Etch as well, as you are used to Ubuntu, the layout will be similar, however Debian is more stable, slightly harder to install, and a lot more powerful.

Thank you everyone. I have a question regarding debian: one of the things that I liked about ubuntu was that the packages were usually up to date. Do I need debian sid/unstable to be able to have up to date packages, and if so, how unstable is unstable?

No. Get Etch. You can get all the updates you need. It also uses the synaptic package manager like Ubuntu.

Etch is testing, stable is sarge, right?

Sarge is oldstable
etch is stable (as of April 7, 2007)
lenny is testing
sid is unstable as always..

Okay. I am sorry if this seems redundant (since everyone seems to be saying to use stable), but what's the difference between stable and testing? I'm not hosting a major server, and I would rather have newer packages and have an occasional package crash rather one where everything is a version behind. But, on the other hand, I want the system to be reliable.

I ask because I used to use a debian like system on my mac (fink), and their stable was at least two versions behind in every piece of software whereas almost everything unstable was perfectly fine. I just want to make sure the same doesn't apply to debian.

Testing to see if its stable. You install it and use it, report bugs so updates and fixes are made.

My recommendation is always the same ... New Debian users should use Testing (now Lenny).

Right now, Debian Stable is actually reasonably up-to-date, but within a year it will become a bit dated.

The "Stable" in Debian "Stable" means that the versions of every software package don't change. The only updates are security updates and other important bug fixes. This is obviously good for servers where even a small difference in configuration file formats is undesirable, but security updates are critical. It's also good for average users who want everything to just work.

... Unless they happen to have new hardware, or want to change some hardware component in the next 18 months.

Installed Debian testing on my powerpc. Amazingly, it is running better than it did running Ubuntu Edgy, and I have yet to encounter any major bugs. My only complaint is that it is using gnome 2.14 instead of a later version, but it works well enough. Thank you everyone for your help.

???? What's that supposed to mean? You're dealing with the original here, not some gaudy imitation promoted by high priced advertising.

Gnome 2.18 will be filtering into Lenny shortly. Just keep up your upgrades.