On Sat, Jan 01, 2005 at 11:51:21PM -0500, Igor Khavkine wrote:
> I'm thinking of getting a PowerPC box as my next
> desktop and I have a few questions. Hopefully this
> is the right place to ask.
>
> First are there viable alternatives to Apple computers
> for a PowerPC desktop? Can I get decent hardward without
> an OS for a reasonable price?
Decent hardware from Apple? I don't think so: The Apple Powerbook G4 I
bought newly about 2 years ago was 2 times broken in about the first
12 months: First the CDrom/DVD was broken, and next a broken
"inverter" made the LCD unusable. Rather clear: The next machine I'll
have will be no Apple machine.
>
> Second, how much trouble am I asking for as opposed to
> buying an Intel or AMD based machine?
If this is a question for the advantages of installing Linux x86
compared to the ppc one: I'm not sure: Yes, on ppc we have no Java for
Firefox/Mozilla, IINM. On the other hand Xine, a Linux movie player,
on an x86 machine here has problems to play files that Xine on ppc
plays without problems. Bizarre, probably , but true ... :)
[ .... ]
> I should be aware of? Also, is there any emulation
> software that I could use to run OS X apps under linux?
Mol. Not being sure whether it's "emulation" or not. It starts here,
yes. But it never really did anything: I never could establish an
Internet connection via Mol. And cloning my Desktop to a TV monitor,
via mol, never worked here. It worked after rebooting to the "real"
OSX ..
[ ... ]
All in all: I always expect trouble when installing Linux, may it be
x86 or powerpc. The problem is that people running other OS's seem to
be running into even more problems sometimes ...
I'd definitely stay away from MacOSX: I was running OSX (10.2, IIRC)
after having bought this Powerbook: Kernel crashes were following, and
it took many weeks until the crap was fixed by an Apple software
update, IIRC.
My impression was that Apple was shipping untested, unstable, lousy
software for rock solid money .. With software features that sometimes
are simply substandard.
It was only the fact I could install Linux to this machine that kept
me from going to Ebay with this bs ...
The only reason I still have OSX installed on a much too large
partition on this machine is the firmware updates that were provided
by Apple for some time .. Not being sure if they still do, with my old
OSX ...
So, Apple: No. Never again. Rather sure ..
Good luck ...
Wolfgang
--
Wolfgang Pfeiffer gpg ID: 0AA7E825
Profile, Links: http://profiles.yahoo.com/wolfgangpfeiffer
