Blog Post
Article posted on Aug 14
PowerPC distributions
- Posted by Ryan Finnie on August 14, 2011, 2:37 am
Finnix has had PowerPC support for over 5 years now, and is frequently mentioned by PowerPC Linux enthusiasts. Part of the reason is while PowerPC is well supported in the Linux kernel, sadly very few distributions support PowerPC any more. Finnix is one of only two PowerPC LiveCDs, and IMHO the most popular (the other is GeeXboX, a graphical multimedia LiveCD). As for installable distributions, very few support more architectures than 32/64-bit x86 these days.
So I decided to make a list of Linux distributions with PowerPC support. I took the list at DistroWatch.com and weeded out errors, distros that are no longer active, distros that are active but no longer have PowerPC support, etc.
- Finnix, obviously (utility LiveCD)
- CRUX PPC, an independent port of CRUX (barebones distro)
- Debian (desktop/server distro)
- Frugalware (desktop distro)
- GeeXboX (multimedia LiveCD)
- Gentoo (source distro)
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux (server/workstation distro, PPC server edition only, paid)
- Source Mage (source distro)
- T2 SDE (devel distro)
- Ubuntu (desktop/server distro, PPC community support only, latest version not available at this time)
- Yellow Dog Linux (desktop/server distro)
Vine Linux (a Japanese language distro) was on this list when I compiled it a few weeks ago. But since then Vine 6.0 was released with no PowerPC support, and the release notes make no mention of its removal.
- 6 Comments
- Posted in Finnix
6 Responses to “PowerPC distributions”
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Finnix
Finnix on Identi.ca
- zinayfuzz: RT @fo0bar !Finnix 108 released! http://ur1.ca/dsds4
- fo0bar: !Finnix 108 released! http://ur1.ca/dsds4
- neustradamus: !Finnix 108 has been released ( !Debian ) http://www.finnix.org/
- zinayfuzz: RT @fo0bar !Finnix 107 released! http://ur1.ca/c9oqp
- fo0bar: !Finnix 107 released! http://ur1.ca/c9oqp
Finnix is really tremendous LiveCD with not-only-x86 support. Thank you, Ryan, very much for the great work!
Thanks for that updated list.
What about MorphOS? it looks like a nice and dynamic platform (dedicated to commodore but seemingly polyvalent).
I'm just on the edge of testing it.
Any news of Slackintosh?
Z.
MorphOS is a closed source project with a non-Linux kernel (though there are some open source components such as the desktop), and I only listed Linux-based distros.
Slackintosh has had no activity for over 3 years. When I filtered through the list, I generally only kept distros that have had releases in the last 2 years (or have been active preparing for a release, etc).
i use CRUX PPC and i'm quite happy of my choice.
Arch Linux PPC is activly maintained, too. (www.archlinuxppc.org)
Hi there, just wondering if you could help me install Finnix in an iBook G3 Clamshell, i've tried MintPPC and it's good but i'm really looking forward to see Finnix on it...
thanks!