I hate it when a perfectly good computer just sits around doing nothing. In this case it's my old Apple 12" PowerBook G4 with the following specs: Processor: 867MHz, Memory: 640MB SDRAM, HardDrive: 40GB Ultra ATA.
Why would I replace the beautiful Apple OS with Linux?
There are two reason. The first is that as soon as Apple decided to go Intel with their processor's they dropped support for the PowerPC version of the OS like a hot potato. I was none two pleased. The second reason is that I can do more with linux running on these hardware specs than I could running Apple's now unsupported OS.
Why Yellow Dog Linux?
It really wasn't a hard decision picking Yellow Dog. My research showed that this distro had the most up to date support for PowerPC processor based computers. Ubuntu also supports the PowerPC but not nearly as well as Yellow Dog.
Getting and Installing Yellow Dog
Installing Yellow Dog was actually quite easy thanks to clear instructions on its web site and an install process that is smooth. First you need to get the latest distribution for the PowerPC. For me that was downloading the YDL 6.2 single ISO from one of it's mirrors.The download is a 3.8GB file which took me about 40 minutes. I have a pretty fast connection. Once you've got the ISO you need to burn to a DVD. I did this on my Mac desktop. You can follow these basic instructions.
Once you've got the ISO burned to a DVD you can download the YDL v6.2 for Apple instructions for a quick and easy install. I went with a single boot with a total wipe of my previous Apple OS.
What Yellow Dog Looks Like When Installed
From left to right you see: The main screen running the Yellow Dog E17 desktop, Terminal and OpenOffice apps open and lastly FireFox with a screenshot of the new SpaceRef web site under development.
What's Next?
Well the laptop will be used to test various code I write and may be used on any expeditions I go on.
I also have an Apple Power Mac G5 which I'm looking to turn into a test server platform so I'll probably put Yellow Dog on it after I've backed up the data. But that project is for another weekend.