distro recommendation for Mac powerbook 1400
 

Hi, first off let me say I'm a total newbie to Linux. I've done some research and have found that it should be possible to run my old powerbook 1400 on linux. However, the big catch is that it has an upgraded processor from Vimage, a Vpower G3 233hz chip. In my mac OS 8 system, it runs with an extension in the system folder. It has 64MB of memory, and a 3 GB hd. I can free up about half of that. What distro for linux should I be looking for that will support my odd processor hardware?

Second, will it be possible to leave my current mac os on there and choose which system to boot it in? If not, then will giving the whole thing over to linux be easier with all 3 GB? And finally, my end goal for all this is not only to learn about linux, but put my old laptop to use as a web browsing machine in my living room. Will using my PMCIA card to connect to my router be supported under the Linux os?

Thanks so much in advance to any help/opinions!
BP

From what I understand, Debian currently has the best PPC support for linux. There are also some distros which are PPC specific that may be even better. Yellow Dog Linux being one of those. Slackintosh comes to mind as well, this project is defunct though, although maybe being an older project it may work better with your older laptop ?

http://www.ubuntulinux.org/

i was reading about this at www.osnews.com, apparently it is easier to install than debian.

I haven't used Debian a PowerPC but I have used it quite a bit... and it is great... If it will install on your system I'm sure you will be very pleased... the least you can do is give it a shot... www.debian.org

Good luck!

Nubus
 

I'm pretty sure debian doesn't support Nubus Powermacs. The issue is not your processor; it's the lack of something called OpenFirmware. Anyways, long story short... Go with MKLinux's Nubus Powermac distro. I think it's all you can use. I also have a 1600, so I'll try it out and get back.

The last post to this thread was almost 6 years ago...........