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Are Dual G5's worth it today?

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twiggs4625

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 9, 2021
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What is the absolute latest version of linux that will run on a G5. I seen the Lubuntu Remix on here (16.04), but curious if instead of getting a PC I can still get a good number of years off a Power Mac... I know... it's weird but I want to use something other than intel and AMD... but you guys and gals get it right? :)

I know the software support is somewhat limited, but curious of the daily drivers out there. I have a Titanium G4 for kicks to play with but wondering how a nice machine like a G5 holds up today.

Thanks.
 
C

Certificate of Excellence

macrumors 6502a
Feb 9, 2021
838
1,281
twiggs4625 said:
What is the absolute latest version of linux that will run on a G5. I seen the Lubuntu Remix on here (16.04), but curious if instead of getting a PC I can still get a good number of years off a Power Mac... I know... it's weird but I want to use something other than intel and AMD... but you guys and gals get it right? :)

I know the software support is somewhat limited, but curious of the daily drivers out there. I have a Titanium G4 for kicks to play with but wondering how a nice machine like a G5 holds up today.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
Hmm, depends on what your needs are. I am content using an old unsupported version of macOS but you could try a currently maintained os like MorphOS. Some folks on here have paid for the license and have posted about there experience - might be worth a read. Modern boxes are so cheap (or even free) and easy to find nowadays, its hard not to just grab one, drop modern Ubuntu 20.04 on it and go.
 
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dextructor

macrumors regular
Oct 21, 2013
241
251
twiggs4625 said:
What is the absolute latest version of linux that will run on a G5
Click to expand...
If I'm not mistaken from the top of my head many major distibuitions (some in official capacity, some in unofficial) are "supported" in G5's:
VoidLinux
Adélie
Bedrock
OpenSUSE
Arch
Fedora (outdated)
Gentoo
Debian

Regarding to software support it's kind a mixed bag, those who are musl (Adélie, Void) won't have any kind of Chromium-based browsers and other kind of proprietary software. Otherwise I really like what Void has to offer, some members here experimented Gentoo, OpenSUSE and Debian with more to share, but if you wanna know what are your options check this site
 
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dextructor

macrumors regular
Oct 21, 2013
241
251
Tratkazir_the_1st said:
AFAIK they are not ONLY musl. And btw, where have you seen Chromium-based browser por ppc64? Can't find such distro yest :D.
Click to expand...
Adélie uses musl primarily (I don't know if don't use glibc at all). Unfortunately Chromium on ppc64 I think it's not gonna happen, because the VoidLinux dev ported to ppc64le (he even ported to ppc64le-musl!) but I wouldn't keep hopes to this happening. Many things where ported and fixed since the project started, if you compare on the packaging statistics page ppc64 have 92.11% of buildable packages and the much newer ppc64le have 96.1% so we are well served
 
lepidotós

lepidotós

macrumors 6502a
Aug 29, 2021
668
743
Marinette, Arizona
twiggs4625 said:
but curious if instead of getting a PC I can still get a good number of years off a Power Mac...
Click to expand...
Honestly, my G4 AGP running at a single 450MHz is still up to the task, I'm certain a dual G5 is going to do you just fine. Especially with the diminishing returns nowadays as x86 matures and comes closer and closer to the limits of the at its heart 1970s architecture, I honestly think right now is a fantastic time to get into old computers as daily drivers. I paid $36, 10x less than many Chromebooks, and yet those Chromebooks certainly don't provide ten times the functionality as the G4 -- the only things they can do better are Twitch Tetris and YouTube.
 
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MysticCow

macrumors 68000
May 27, 2013
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lepidotós said:
Honestly, my G4 AGP running at a single 450MHz is still up to the task, I'm certain a dual G5 is going to do you just fine.
Click to expand...

My G3 does just fine as a daily driver as long as nothing with the outside internet is involved. It runs Office 2004 (and 2001 in OS 9), iWork, iLife, etc. It can still process audio in Audacity.

It all comes down to what you're doing with the machine.

With a G4 or G5, I'd make sure it could run MorphOS anymore and go with it. It can even play YouTube videos pretty well.
 
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dextructor

macrumors regular
Oct 21, 2013
241
251
MysticCow said:
With a G4 or G5, I'd make sure it could run MorphOS anymore and go with it. It can even play YouTube videos pretty well.
Click to expand...
Why you wanna use MorphOS, just for the internet? By my limited knowledge it has really few applications compared to many linux distros, right? It doesn't have any LibreOffice equivalent the last time that I checked their forums
 
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MysticCow

macrumors 68000
May 27, 2013
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dextructor said:
Why you wanna use MorphOS, just for the internet? By my limited knowledge it has really few applications compared to many linux distros, right? It doesn't have any LibreOffice equivalent the last time that I checked their forums
Click to expand...

Because Linux is painfully slow on PowerPC. Always has been.
 
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dextructor

macrumors regular
Oct 21, 2013
241
251
MysticCow said:
Because Linux is painfully slow on PowerPC. Always has been.
Click to expand...
Agree that some things is getting more bloated in Linux (don't get me started with systemd) but if you get older and optimized versions of Linux like @wicknix made available.

I use Void really minimalist installation in all of my machines (even x86_64 or Raspberry Pi 4). The Desktop environment I'm still trying to get a nice balance between features and performance, because for more eye candy that KDE or Gnome it's (and I don't like that much) it's very resource hungry. I would love to have an iBook G3 Clamshell for having OS9 and other things, but in every machine that I have (G4's and G5) it's maxed of RAM and SSD that helps a lot, but I keep my expectations of screaming performance controlled, because having access to "modern software" on this old machines has it's price.

MysticCow said:
I will respond by asking what ISN'T slow? Especially compared to MorphOS?
Click to expand...
I agree that MorphOS it's really fast. It has some good points like:
Good microkernel
very optimized programing languages and libraries targeting our machines.

But the points that I don't like:

They don't have any roadmap about their development,
there are many closed source software meaning that they would do whatever they like with the OS and users can't complain.
Very limited hardware support.
The OS won't use/recognize more than 1.5GB of RAM.
Don't have a great library of softwares, meaning that you have a screaming fast machine with very good optimization, but you don't know if they will move to other architecture because it's getting harder and harder to get compatible machines for any amount reasonable.

With the RAM limitation shared across the whole OS the software can't grow in complexity (No I don't like any modern browser that uses +1GB of RAM for no good reason). Their price of 80 euro it's not very friendly but what I don't like it's very clear that even paying for the software you don't get support for an OS with almost none documentation and more niche community than Linux ever was.
 
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