What's your favorite */Linux or *BSD distro?
I recently got an old mac (a Performa 6500) off a friend. He said he was going to get rid of it, so I said "Wait, theres a perfectly good hard drive in there." Then I said "Wait, theres a useable processor in there." So he gladly handed it off to me and we quickly decided we wanted to play with */linux. It can take some pressure of my main comp, by running my web and ftp servers.
I'd heard really good things about Yellow Dog Linux, so that was the first one I grabbed. After figuring out that its an Old-World mac therefore the Open-Firmware is really gnarly and tough to work with; I manage to get it to boot and install, but it wasn't to my liking. I figured, since this computer is basically fresh, I won't lose too much playing with all kinds of distros. So I got Debian and that is a lot nicer (imo), but its got some problems too. Both of them seem to disagree with my nic, and neither wants to play nice with XFree86. But instead of addressing the problem, I figured it'd be fun to play with some more distros.
I promptly decided that I might like a *BSD, since it'll be more osx-like. Unfortunately the only one I could find that supports old worlds at all is 'netbsd', and with my model it requires that I plug a serial cable from the comp to another comp (just to make it boot!). Since my main mac lacks a serial port, and I lack a male2male serial cable, I nixed that idea. I considered getting a */darwin, but the reqs for that are the same as for macosx, and this performa is harldy going to be able to run that.
So now I'm trying to decide which linux (or other free os) I'd like to try next. I haven't seen any good distro v distro debates here at ai, so I figured, why not instigate one. Anyone have any favorites or recommendations? Extra points if it runs smoothly on a Performa 6500.
I'd heard really good things about Yellow Dog Linux, so that was the first one I grabbed. After figuring out that its an Old-World mac therefore the Open-Firmware is really gnarly and tough to work with; I manage to get it to boot and install, but it wasn't to my liking. I figured, since this computer is basically fresh, I won't lose too much playing with all kinds of distros. So I got Debian and that is a lot nicer (imo), but its got some problems too. Both of them seem to disagree with my nic, and neither wants to play nice with XFree86. But instead of addressing the problem, I figured it'd be fun to play with some more distros.
I promptly decided that I might like a *BSD, since it'll be more osx-like. Unfortunately the only one I could find that supports old worlds at all is 'netbsd', and with my model it requires that I plug a serial cable from the comp to another comp (just to make it boot!). Since my main mac lacks a serial port, and I lack a male2male serial cable, I nixed that idea. I considered getting a */darwin, but the reqs for that are the same as for macosx, and this performa is harldy going to be able to run that.
So now I'm trying to decide which linux (or other free os) I'd like to try next. I haven't seen any good distro v distro debates here at ai, so I figured, why not instigate one. Anyone have any favorites or recommendations? Extra points if it runs smoothly on a Performa 6500.
Comments
BTW, I have been looking for a Linux that can run on a 6100.
That aside, YDL is probably the best linux distro for such a machine, and netbsd probably the best bsd (skip Darwin).
Originally posted by 1337_5L4Xx0R
If X is having trouble sorting out your video hardware, then all linuxes and bsds will have this problem, as they all use X for GUIs.
That aside, YDL is probably the best linux distro for such a machine, and netbsd probably the best bsd (skip Darwin).
i know they'd all have the problem. i was just looking for an excuse to poke around with some different *nixen. i dont think the xfree problem was anything major anyway, i probably just picked the wrong video drivers.
what makes ydl the best linux? netbsd is best bsd, by default, as no other distro even runs on this machine. (unless there are more *bsds out there that i dont know about that run on a performa 6500).
Period. Run from them. Let them die.
Can you tell I hate Linux?
:-)
Linux has good support for mac hardware. YDL is the 'best' for your situation. IMHO Gentoo is the best distro, but you don't want to be compiling glibc or gcc 3.2 on a performa. Trust me.
though if you only need it as a web or ftp server, why use xfree?
Originally posted by cybermonkey
you could try gentoo or suse ppc.
though if you only need it as a web or ftp server, why use xfree?
mainly because i dont like terminal stuck emacs. also because i also want to use the comp to teach my friend about */linux and he's scared of the cli.
i had forgotten about gentoo. thats next on the list now. i dont care how long it takes. i've wanted to do that one for a while.
http://slackintosh.exploits.org/
Good luck!