Si I have been wanting to make the Linux leap for years now and just never wanted to partition and take the time to learn a new OS. BUT! I went and got a iBook G3 and well as I thought I would, I hate MAC. But I hate the thought of pitching a perfectly good shell because the OS blows. SO......IT'S LINUX TIME! As I write it is installing on the Mac. Thus far what I read I am liking. However as a newbie, I am wondering. Do all Linux programs work on all Linux debains? Where do we go to get programs for the linux platform. I understand microsoft. I get the Mac premiss not a fan, but I like what read of Linux save for the lack of information on where to go to get the right programs for your particular OS. Forinstace. Is there an itunes available for Linux? Media players, can I run utorrent or similar, and as I asked, If I see a linux program that sounds bad ass, will mintppc run it? Now that I am actually installing a linux in my computer I will be on a faster more indepth research on it. I am really excited about it.

Thanks guys

I think you mean "Do all linux programs work on all linux distros?". Debian is just another distro in the pool, though very high level, as many things are based off of it. (Such as all buntus, Linux Mint, MintPPC and many others.) MintPPC is basically Debian with the Linux Mint GUI ported over (and some other stuff not relevant to program compatibility), and as such, most (if not all) programs for compiled for PPC Debian will run on MintPPC.

Linux programs (on MintPPC at least) are are installed by using the command line or a package manager such as synaptic. In MintPPC, to install from the command line, you use "apt install programname", such as "apt install htop". The "apt" command requires root privileges to run. You can read more about root privileges here. You can also install from synaptic by searching for the package you want, right clicking and hitting mark for installation, and then hitting apply.

MintPPC will come with several music programs by default in the multimedia menu. I personally like clementine (not installed by default).

Common media players include VLC (all around best) and mplayer (more techy, but a bit faster). Minitubes can be used to view youtube videos with no browser. I believe the standard torrent program is transmission, but you can install whatever you want. Pretty much any program you see will work, so long as it ported to PPC. However, a word of caution about games: Unless you have video acceleration, they are very unlikely to work [well].

Good Luck and Enjoy!

I often use (http://www.AlternativeTo.net) to see alternatives for popular programs... they have filters that let you specify for which OS you want those alternatives for (in our case, that'd be Linux).

I have to admit that it would be so much sweeter if they included which architecture the listed results support (like for Intel/PPC or both)... but for now it serves its purpose just fine. Once I pick out something that sparks my interest, I go into Synaptic to see if I could find the alternative for my distro (MintPPC). If not, I go look for another different alternative.

Thank you for your quick reply. As you see I still have much to learn. My main reason for wanting itunes.........I need to rephrase that..... I do not want iTunes, I do not like iTunes, but unfortunately my kids do like the ipod, pad, phone, hence they would need the itunes. I am in no rush as I have three more computers at home they can use. However, my mom has been using a powerbook G4 that is no good anymore and she has an iphone. I thought this would be good for her because she is not rich enough to keep up with mainstream computers, and she is not techy enough to want to. She wants a simple system that has a way to watch video, listen to audio, get online, write in a word format, and update her iphone. Her G4 now tells her to update the itunes to update the phone, but itunes doesn't support her computer anymore. One more reason I don't like Mac.

Now, I am not up to speed yet on Unix. I know Mac is Unix based, however what is the difference between Mac and Linux that makes Linux work no matter what the system? I was afraid mintppc 11 was not going to work on the G3, but low and behold, its amazing! I love it and I haven't even managed to see all of it yet. Though I still don't seem to have a right click capability. I saw a video online where the fella was right clicking, and when I went to do that it didn't happen. I assume the G3 has no right button. On the flip side, in OS X my touch pad would only move. I couldn't tap the pad to select, in 11, it started working. Go figure. I am really hoping that I get to learning this quickly.

One more then I'm done....for now. Is Mint, and Mintppc, different? I was watching video on MInt, and it looks as though it has more features. Am I incorrect?, or does mintppc have all the capabilities. Do some need installed?

Thanks again!

To simulate a right click on an ibook g3, hit F11.

Linux Mint and MintPPC are similar, but different. Debian is at the top. Ubuntu is based off of debian. Linux Mint is based off of Ubuntu and has made a custom port of LXDE for their distro; however, it is only available for x86. MintPPC is debian with the Mint-LXDE interface ported to PPC.

Why can the newest Linux run on a G3 and the newest Mac OS X cannot? Well, us Linux people take the time to make sure it stills works. As for OS X not working... well... money.

Very niiice. Thanks again.

I have two new ones.
One my cd eject button doesnt work in mintppc.
two, should I want to how do I do a dual boot in Mac? Should I want to go into OSX how do I tell it to do so?

There is a fix for that pesky key somewhere. I can't think of it right now.

If you want to go into OS X, you'll need to hit X at the first yaboot prompt.

If you have your OSX CD set or DVD, I recommend that you start fresh by partitioning your hard drive into 2 partitions: 1 partition for OSX (just enough to hold the OS itself and perhaps half a dozen of your frequently-used 3rd party apps) and 1 other partition for MintPPC (make sure you mark that partition as unused space in OSX's disk utility). Bear in mind that this will erase EVERYTHING that's on your drive right now... so you should make backups before you try a dual-boot configuration.

Then, install OSX on one partition. Reboot into OSX and do whatever tweaking/cleanup you usually do, like registering with Apple (hehehe), configuring your network settings, etc.

After all of that, you can install MintPPC. Just make sure that during the process of installing the base Debian (you know... the stuff with the blue screen), you pay particular attention to the part where you tell Linux to use the largest free space available....... and in this case, it should be able to detect the empty partition you set up earlier. After that, just proceed with the installation as you did last time.

Make sure you get your xorg.conf downloaded and installed and add yourself to the "sudoers" file so you can fine-tune your MintPPC installation once you get into the GUI. There are proceedures for that on this forum... they're easy to find.

And so each time you reboot, you'll be able to choose from a time-delayed list which OS you want to boot into.

This should work even with a triple-boot setup... like if you added Mac OS 9 into the mix.... but that's probably more trouble than it's worth... I can't remember where I read it, but there are/were people who said that Yaboot keeps knocking OS 9 off the list entirely after each reboot.

rkmugan: Thanks for the response. So then when I installed the mintppc it asked how to install it and I told it to use the largest partition. I thought I was partitioning for dual boot but when I start I never see anything about OS X anymore.

Does this mean I overwrote OS X? I no longer have the CD's i'd have to look for it on the internet. I am actually selling the damn thing now and I think it would be easier to unload for my cost with a dual boot than just Linux. I actually have two. So I want them both gone. I have decided I really do not like MAC and though Linux looks good, I would rather have it on a newer system that I can really experience it.

The problem with Yaboot not detecting OS X on HFS+ partitions must still not be fixed. You have to fix it manually...

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