Well, they've got to be doing something right.

PowerPC LinuxPPC: Yellow Dog Linux for PowerPC Computers

This simple little Linux distro saved my near-obsolete G3. The crappy blue & white that wouldn't work right is (so far) running like a dream under YDL. And they told me it could, but I didn't believe them.

It wasn't an easy task though. After nearly 7 install attempts, it actually booted into YDL 3. Supposedly I can still boot into OS 9, but I have yet to get that to work.

So the real test will be when I attempt to install a new primary HD. About a year ago I tried to put in a bigger HD (as the machine came with a paltry 6 GB) and no matter what I did, the bootloader in the machine wouldn't recognize the drive. In fact, the ONLY way I could get the thing to boot was that original drive in the primary slot...

Hopefully yaboot will understand things a little better. And hopefully Linux will continue to run smoothly.

The one wrinkle will be putting OS X and OS 9 as partitions on the 40 GB drive I'll install. Now, I won't be booting into those partitions, but I do want to be using the VERY cool Mac on Linux.

I actually blew some minds by launching OS 9 in a little window within YDL. Very cool!

What's neat about all this, as I'm a Linux newbie, is recapturing that spirit of early computing. I'm seeing the early stages of a new paradigm. Granted, Linux has been around for a while, but only when installs are easy, and configuration straightforward will it really catch on. Just like the difference between DOS and Windows, or an Apple ][ and a Macintosh.

Let the journey begin...
- posted by Victor Agreda, Jr. @ 7:50 PM