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  • Mirror Door G4 MAC, ideas?

    From bunnygirl@80:505/18 to All on Wed Dec 22 23:47:12 2021
    So I have an old G4 Mac (mirror door) tower that just needs some ram and a
    hard drive to be good to go (both were missing when I acquired the tower). While I wouldn't mind throwing a pre-OSX version on there, I'm curious if
    there are any good alternatives for the PPC platform. Any gotchas that I should be aware of?

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Al's Geek Lab -=- bbs.alsgeeklab.com:2323 (80:505/18)
  • From acn@80:774/113.1 to bunnygirl on Thu Dec 23 11:18:00 2021
    Am 22.12.21 schrieb bunnygirl@80:505/18 in RTN_APPLE:

    Hallo bunnygirl,

    So I have an old G4 Mac (mirror door) tower that just needs some ram and a hard drive to be good to go (both were missing when I acquired the tower). While I wouldn't mind throwing a pre-OSX version on there, I'm curious if there are any good alternatives for the PPC platform. Any gotchas that I should be aware of?

    If you are searching for alternative operating systems, there is
    MorphOS, which can run on PPC hardware.
    For a compatibility list, see: https://www.morphos-team.net/hardware
    The PowerMac G4 is supported if an ATI graphics card is used.

    Besides, there are some Linux variations which can run on a G4; but I
    don't have any experience on this topic.

    Regards,
    Anna

    --- OpenXP 5.0.50
    * Origin: Imzadi Box Point (80:774/113.1)
  • From Otto Reverse@80:505/12 to bunnygirl on Thu Dec 23 05:05:01 2021
    So I have an old G4 Mac (mirror door) tower that just needs some ram and
    a hard drive to be good to go (both were missing when I acquired the tower). While I wouldn't mind throwing a pre-OSX version on there, I'm curious if there are any good alternatives for the PPC platform. Any gotchas that I should be aware of?

    Usefulness. I have a G4 PowerBook and a (soon to be working) G4 "windtunnel". I tried MorphOS on the PowerBook. Fun to tinker with and if tinkering is what you are into then go for it. But it is not free and for me it wasn't worth the cost. The question becomes what can you do with it?
    Same for older versions of Linux that will run on G4's as well.

    For me the value in an old computer is setting it up with an appropriate era OS and then installing software from the same era, be they games or applications. In the age of "abandonware" you can try out programs you perhaps didn't have back then.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/10/25 (Raspberry Pi/32)
    * Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbs>>>20ForBeers.com:1337 (80:505/12)
  • From Ginger1 to bunnygirl on Tue Apr 12 21:36:30 2022
    Re: Mirror Door G4 MAC, ideas?
    By: bunnygirl to All on Wed Dec 22 2021 23:47:12

    So I have an old G4 Mac (mirror door) tower that just needs some ram and a hard drive to be good to go (both were missing when I acquired the tower). While I wouldn't mind throwing a pre-OSX version on there, I'm curious if there are any good alternatives for the PPC platform. Any gotchas that I should be aware of?

    As others have said in this thread, MorphOS is worth a look if you haven't tired already. I have it dual-booted with OS X on a PowerBook G4, so have the option to use both. I tend to use MorphOS a lot more than OS X, but I have a background using Amigas so am quite happy fiddling around with it, getting various old 68k apps running on it etc. It can be quite a productive system once you've found the various bits of software to suit your needs. The browser is quite up-to-date too, if that's important.