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OpenSUSE Tumbleweed still supports the G5?

EmNem543

Well-known member
According to this page (https://download.opensuse.org/ports/ppc/tumbleweed/iso/), the latest version of OpenSUSE Tumbleweed is still available for Big-Endian PowerPC systems. These installers are specifically made for the G5 Xserve, but should still work on PowerMac G5's and iMac G5's. I don't have a G5 system so I am wondering if someone can download and install it on a G5 system to see if it still works and if it is the latest version. I'm just curious because this seems to be the last Big-Name Linux Distro that still supports at least some PowerPC Macs.
 

Cory5412

Daring Pioneer of the Future
Staff member
Those sure are ISOs that sure do say G5 on them.

It'd be interesting to see what that's like, if the builds are "for" XServe G5 this is, as a guess, probably at the behest or because of some single installation of XServe G5s or because someone close to the project has one.

If this build is aimed explicitly at XServes, it'd be interesting to see what if any of the human niceties for the PowerMac G5 work (e.g. fan control, graphics acceleration, sound, etc etc). Not that it wouldn't run or be worthwhile as much as that doing so would result in a meaningfully worse experience than if you ran mac os x on one of these machines.

I'm almost more interested in who is using it and why than what the actual software is like. I would be completely unsurprised to find out we're beyond the point at which a Raspberry Pi will outperform an XServe G5. You can get decade-old 1u Dell PowerEdges that, if you're just going to run linux, should be able to virtualize ~4-6 XServes' worth of computing capability apiece.
 
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