Over the years i've watched the powerpc challenge from afar. This year i figured what the heck, why not?
Now the challenge really isn't a challenge to me because i use my powerpc macs pretty much every day, and i have found ways to make "modern computing" work for me on these 15-20 year old machines.
I started week 1 of the challenge on my 2ghz dual processor G5 w/4gb of ram running Void Linux. Yes, a modern 2021/2022 operating system and software running on a G5. Here are some of the things i was able to do effortlessly.
(Click the images for full resolution)
Watched mac 84's YouTube live stream in 480p via streamlink
Watched some regular YouTube in 720p via pipe-viewer
Chatted on Discord (using the web app via the Eolie web browser)
Browsed the modern web via InterWeb
Used a modern office suite
Created some music
Created and edited photos
That about covers my basic computing needs. Can the machine do more? Sure.
Now do i use my 12" PowerBook G4 for week 2? Or stay on the G5? Hmmm.
Maybe i'll make a video. More to come....
Tuesday the 11th.
Booted the Adelie Mate live disk on my G5 to see if i could help those without sound. You can read my post about it here.
Saturday the 15th
Played around with the Adelie Linux ppc64 Mate live disk again. Contemplated on installing it, but i really like VoidPPC, and it's updated a lot more frequently.
I also found in my xbps cache (on Void Linux) the older firefox-68.11-esr and also the libicu.67 libraries it requires to run. I packaged them up for users that need a newer firefox for certain websites, and also have the endianness color issues with firefox 95 on Void 64-bit like i did. Just extract it, then copy or move its contents to /usr/lib. Grab the archive here.
Watch twitch.tv live streams with TwitchPlay or PPCMC
Browse most the modern web with ArcticFox, InterWebPPC, or TFF
Do office stuff with a semi modern LibreOffice 5 from 2016
As promised, here is a short video using my 12" PowerBook G4 which is also running Void Linux. Sorry for the lack of decent lighting and video quality (cheap phone).
I watched 4 hours of Mac84's 9 hour live stream on the 12" PowerBook
Space Cadet Pinball on the 12" PowerBook
Very nice. Watching Sean's most recent vid, I was going to try Adelie Linux, but maybe I will give void a go. I use Ubuntu 16.4/k4.4 but that's getting long in the tooth, so kicking the tires of a current Distro like void or Adelie with a newer kernel sounds like fun.
ReplyDeleteVoid is newer (current) than Adelie (which was last updated in 2020). Void will however drop ppc32/ppc64 support in January 2023. That's still another full year, and almost a decade and a half newer than Leopard. Although there is nothing wrong with 16.04 either. I still have 12.04 on my G5 as well. I just installed the all development tools and rebuilt a ton of software for it to keep it semi current. You could do the same if it's serving you well.
DeleteWhat tools do you use to build Linux software?
DeleteMost Linux distros come with already built packages so there is no need to build software (unlike many of the BSD's). However if you want to compile something you'd need gcc, autoconf, make, a bunch of dev headers like gtk, openssl, glib, etc. It really depends on what you want to build.
DeleteThis is amazing work. I have sadly not kept some of the older systems I once had. Had a tangerine iBook, a last call iBook G4, and an iMac G3, and it would have been really cool to surf the Internet and watch YouTube on those machines, especially the G3, which is an aesthetic not even the colourful new iMacs can match.
Delete