MacOS 9.1 vs Ubuntu 9.10

[Quadraman]

So you just got a beige PCI Mac with no OS installed and you have Mac OS 9.1 and Ubuntu 9.10 for PPC Macs available for a clean install. Given how old 9.1 is and that no modern software runs under it any longer, and the fact that you have a half dozen other Macs with 9 installed already, would you install Ubuntu instead?

 

[Osgeld]

given that situation yes

 

[Dog Cow]

Carbon isn't modern?

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Cool, I didn't realize that there was an easy install version of ubuntu for PPCs!

AFAIKnew, they all required foolin' around waaay more than I wanted to do. Will it run on a 6500/G3 Sonnet . . .

. . . or are we talking native G3, G4 or what? :?:

 

[protocol7]

I tried Ubuntu a couple of times on my iBook and iMac over the years. It's been a while but I think I had video problems with both (the iMac for sure). Kubuntu especially was very buggy. I fared better with plain Ubuntu but not enough to run them much longer after installation. They might have ironed these problems out by now so it's no harm to try it. If it doesn't work out you can go to OS9.

 

[Mars478]

I like Kubuntu on my Clamshell, it gave the iBook new life, albeit being a bit buggered up

 

[Strimkind]

I vote 9.1 due to it being mac and there is classilla for web surfing.

I did try Ubuntu on a Dell but the disk would not load, and Kubuntu worked but it sucked. I really did not like the GUI when I was trying to find file management.

 

[jruschme]

Cool, I didn't realize that there was an easy install version of ubuntu for PPCs!
AFAIKnew, they all required foolin' around waaay more than I wanted to do. Will it run on a 6500/G3 Sonnet . . .

. . . or are we talking native G3, G4 or what? :?:

I would think that it should... does the L2 card have an enabler? If so, you may have to juggle extensions a bit to get it to load before BootX.

As for the install... I did a 9.04 install on my Wallstreet a while back. It's a pretty easy install provided you use the Alternate CD. Obviously, you need to have at least a minimal MacOS install as you actually boot Linux from the Classic OS using BootX.

The biggest problem I had was in copying the kernel and ramdisk from the installed system to the Mac OS partition. I didn't have a small HFS partition and Linux can't write to HFS+ (at least by default).

John

 

[QuadSix50]

The biggest problem I had was in copying the kernel and ramdisk from the installed system to the Mac OS partition. I didn't have a small HFS partition and Linux can't write to HFS+ (at least by default).

The trick is to load the module for hfs or hfsplus in the following manner. You have to Alt-Fn (where n is a number) once in the installation is finished and it prompts you to restart (which you don't want to do yet):

modprobe hfs (for HFS support)

modprobe hfsplus (for HFS+ support)

Once you do that, you can mount the Mac OS partition and move the kernel and ramdisk over. Finally, you can Alt-Fn back to the installation console window and allow the restart to take place.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Apparently, they all STILL require foolin' around waaay more than I want to do! BLEH!

I'll just keep working on my X86/Radius 81/110 ubuntuGIMPbox™ Hack! )

 

[ClassicHasClass]

I vote 9.1 due to it being mac and there is classilla for web surfing.
I did try Ubuntu on a Dell but the disk would not load, and Kubuntu worked but it sucked. I really did not like the GUI when I was trying to find file management.

I did, and do, run Knoppix under VPC 6 for Firefox 3 using custom boot args. It's slow as, well, something that is extremely slow, but it works if I have no choice and desperately need to view a site that doesn't work right in Classilla yet. Knoppix hits a few of VPC's bugs when trying to install it to disk, but it runs from the LiveCD well enough, and LXDE doesn't kill the emulator. That could be a best of both worlds approach for people, if you have VPC, so for me I'd choose 9.1 also. (For that matter, I could also get Damn Small Linux and Puppy Linux happy, but straight-up Debian and Ubuntu both went bang, and FreeBSD was also not happy.)

For the interested, the magic words to lilo were: knoppix i8042.noloop xmodule=fbdev screen=1024x768

 

[Bunsen]

Where's the button to vote "Both, with MOL"?

 

[Quadraman]

Where's the button to vote "Both, with MOL"?

You have to have at least a minimal install of 9.x.x to run BootX so having an option for both seemed redundant. I'm trying to decide whether to devote the whole drive to 9 or partition for Linux making Linux the larger of the two.

 

[Temetka]

As much as I love Linux, my vote goes for 9.1.

I'm getting old and just want my computers to work with minimal fuss.

I don't really use OS 9 for browsing on an extended basis, just a few sites here and there. I mainly use it for writing and retro gaming, which OS 9 does very well for me.

Last time I tried Ubuntu on my iBook, it was, well, unpleasant to say the least.

 

[Bunsen]

Apparently, they all STILL require foolin' around waaay more than I want to do! BLEH!

Only the machines with Old World ROMs. Anything B&W G3/Pismo and up is a cakewalk.

 

[LCGuy]

Personally I'd go with 9.1 - being able to run Ubuntu isn't really all that special when you can easily find a PC on the side of the road that'll run the x86 version of Ubuntu (which I'm guessing has better support) a lot better than the Mac, that would also be cheaper and easier to upgrade.

 

[II2II]

If it was a G3 iMac, I would install NetBSD. But it isn't. If I didn't already have half a dozen 9.1 machines, I would install 9.1. But the hypothetical situation has me owning a half a dozen 9.1 machines. Maybe some version of Mac OS 7 would interest me, but I'd rather do that on a 68k Mac to use my favourite version of System 7. That being 7.1. So I think that I would just end up searching for a new home for that PCI PowerMac.

 

[Temetka]

Good point.

I've trimmed down all my of computers and now have:

My sawtooth

My BeigeG3 MT

My 5300cs

My 8600 soon to be parted out

However if this was 2 years ago and I still had a lot of classic macs I *might* be tempted to load NetBSD on it.

 

[II2II]

I was trying to place my mind into a glorious time "2 years" past too. I currently live in a town which may have four Macs in it, two of which belong to one person and none of which are mine.

But I'm going to be out of here soon, and hopefully a 68k PowerBook will be in my future. If not that, a 486 based Thinkpad.