NSTANOSHECK  I love YDL 3.0 on my old 3400c PowerBook, but was not the biggest fan of 4.1 and switched to Ubuntu for a while, but once Yellow Dog Linux 4.1 came out I switched back and was happy as a clam. YDL 5.0.1 really seems more modern and a much better release. Linux is different and can be hard, but please be sure to use the forum, the mailing lists, and the online help. There is even a book you can buy from Terra Soft Solution! Give it a full 2 weeks to try it out using the numerous support options available and you too will most likely fall in love with this free OS called Yellow Dog Linux.

Strong rumours say that most PowerPC Apple Macinstosh Computers will not be supported after Mac OS X 10.5, so this is the future for all PPC Mac owners.  
(Version 5.0.1)

JKXZDF  I've used this for a couple days and was not pleased... have been using Ununtu ever since.  
(Version 4.1)

D0CTOR  Well, good stuff, but:

1. How to get an update if you are on 4.0.x version? BTW, version 4.0 is absolutely free (just your traffic)

2. I ran it on my PB G4 1GHz, Mac on Linux was a problem, did not find my embedded airport card

3. Yep, not that fast at all...

4. Ubuntu is a good alternative anyway (and free and with an easy update)  
(Version 4.1)

STEVE  working fine on my G5. love it (still prefer apple's osx unix though). :p  
(Version 4.0)

ANONYMOUS  Best Linux for PPC.Looks like all us ppc users will be running this when apple stops supporting the ppc macs.Great OS thogh if you have a new world mac.  
(Version 4.0)

ANONYMOUS  has anyone had any luck installing this with a 8mb ixmicro twin turbo graphics card?  
(Version 4.0)

GORD NICKERSON  You can install YDL 4 on older equipment. Just requires a bit more work. The target machine was an 8600 with 256mb ram, 200mhz 604e and 4gig HD.

1. Used mac drive setup to partition the disk into 400mb HFS parition for os 9,1 a 700 mb swap parition and the remaminder an ext3 parition.

2. Installed a minimal 9.1 and took out everything not needed.

3. Downloaded and copyied Bootx to control panel and ramdisk.image.gz and vmlinux.2.6.8-1.ydl.y to linux kernels folder in system

4. Set bootX parameters to use ramdisk.image.gz and set ramdisk size to 65000 and did NOT save prefs. Choose Linux and machine rebooted into Anaconda install

3. Choose personal desktop install with manual partition. Replaced kde w gnome

4. Choose /dev/sda8 as the / mount point

5. Set up eth0 as DHCP and root user

6. Error message - partition map has no partition map entry was displayed but clicked fix and install continued.

7. Once all the packages were installed Anaconda crashed with an unhandled exception error - 'bootload has no attribute macosx' caused by the fact this is an old world mac

8. Restarted system into macos, ran bootX and entered /dev/sda8 as the root partition and SAVED the prefs, choose Linux and machine rebooted

9. Booted into text mode and logged in as root.

10. Changed directory to /etc and issued command vi innittab and changed the runlevel from 3 to 5. Gave reboot command and X login screen came up

Set up samba, network printer etc.

Once the special effects are turned off by choosing a minimal theme it runs not too bad considering the age of the machine. Being able to run a modern linux at all on an old mac is quite a achievement. For newer equipment OSX makes sense but i found it's performance on a G3 500 is about the same as YDL 4.0 on 604 200. Next, i'll try YDL on a G4 powerbook to see how it fares.

BTW there are rpm binaries for YDL, such as Firefox. You can also exit the gui and use it as an X server by typing X -query host or X - broadcast.   
(Version 4.0)

ANONYMOUS  crap compatibility with the G5

no sound

no mac on linus

get you act together guys!  
(Version 4.0)

JOE  I've played around with YDL for a couple years now. I had version 3.1 running on a PowerMac 6500 250MHz 603e processor. It was a great running system and very stable.

A few days ago I installed YDL 4 on a Blueberry iBook 300MHz with 320MB RAM and a 30GB 4200RPM HD. Installation was easy but not very fast. I installed a ton of packages so that is where the not very fast comes in.

My first impression after the install wasn't all that great. It is slow running which I did not expect. Panther runs faster on my iBook. YDL 3.1 ran faster on my PM 6500. You get all the typical Linux applications like OpenOffice and others that would be expected of a Linux distro.

I didn't have a problem getting Mac On Linux working so that is a plus. Airport was recognized and I connected to the Internet through my home network without any problems. Downloading through Airport was very slow. I would get between 4-6kps. I'm not on dial-up so I would expect at least 100kps. Anything I tried to download was at this slow speed. I never could download updates because I could never connect to the servers.

Overall I feel that the system would be faster if it where at least 500MHz. The GUI still looks very plain compared to distros like SuSE or Mandrake. You still have to use the command line to get updates which is bad for new users. Mandrake PPC (which isn't even being updated as far as I can tell) has had it where you can update through the GUI for some time. YDL 4 will not install on anything below a G3 so anyone with an older PowerMac should find an earlier release.

YDL will not put new life into your old G3. Stick with OSX 10.3 because it is faster and just as stable. I wouldn't use this as my primary OS on anything below 500MHz. Overall I feel that this is a very weak release. YDL has a long way to go and for a newbie this distro will most likely cause nothing but aggravation.  
(Version 4.0)

SOUTHPAW  You are not paying for the Linux. You can download the Linux for free. You are paying for the CDs, Manual, Packaging, etcetera.

What people are forgetting, is that there is over 1000 programs that are included on four CDs with the purchase. (That's a lot of time saved from downloading) Many of these programs were written for the purpose of providing free functionality where it previously cost money. So, even though many of you have never heard of the names of the programs(because many are Linux only), the individual functionality is often nearly equal to and sometimes equal or greater than popular commercial applications that cost money.

Included programs, like MOL(Mac on Linux which runs OS9 and OSX) and Bochs(PC emulator which supports up to Win98) are useful for compatibility purposes.

Updates to programs are from people that want to update the programs, rather people that are paid to create updates for programs. Finding updates sometimes takes a little searching.

YDL is based off RedHat Linux. It is less resource intensive(or can be adjusted) than XP or OSX, which means it will run faster than those operating systems at daily tasks. Most applications written for Linux are written for pc, so new applications that you would like to use that aren't YDL can be recompiled via the source code to the ppc format. Which means that there is no re-writing neccessary... something like if you could run Windows software on your mac without having to re-write the software(without having to buy VPC). Very convenient.

Linux isn't for the person that doesn't know anything about computers, unless they have a ravishing desire to learn. However, if you know little, are willing to try out a number of freeware programs till you get the hang of them, then maybe over a thousand free programs included with your operating system will be a very luxurious thing.  
(Version 4.0)