# Can you recommend a distribution for an old iMac?



## ColdfireMC (Jan 8, 2015)

Hi, I have an old iMac with a g3 @ 350mhz cpu and 512mb of SDRAM, and it has osx10.4. It runs nice but, there's no much "actual" software for this os, so I want to install it something, but I don't want to ask for trouble, I need something that really works, without need to spent hours and hours building ports, and also something that support its video card (rage 128). So, can you recommend a distro for this old mac?

Thanks


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## Oko (Jan 8, 2015)

Both OpenBSD and NetBSD should run on it without any problems. I have never been into MAC Power PC hardware so I am not sure which OS will run better.


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## ColdfireMC (Jan 8, 2015)

Some time ago I have tested OpenBSD 5.2, I only can remember some headaches making display work.


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## fernandel (Jan 8, 2015)

https://www.freebsd.org/platforms/ppc.html


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## wblock@ (Jan 8, 2015)

The only thing I found that worked correctly on old G3 hardware was Debian.  OpenBSD almost did, but seemed confused about the screen bit depth.  Unless there is a hobby aspect, keeping long-obsolete hardware like that alive is more effort than reward.


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## ColdfireMC (Jan 9, 2015)

wblock@ said:


> The only thing I found that worked correctly on old G3 hardware was Debian.  OpenBSD almost did, but seemed confused about the screen bit depth.  Unless there is a hobby aspect, keeping long-obsolete hardware like that alive is more effort than reward.



JustForFun . Old hardware emulators are terrible, only a few work "acceptable". Dosbox does not respect any clocks, mac emulators are just junk. If I have the real machine, why emulate it?

So Debian? Do you know if video acceleration for this thing works?(Or better, where I can ask that?) (Without it, things can turn not-so-funny-slow).


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## wblock@ (Jan 9, 2015)

Sorry, I don't recall the details.  It was unpleasant, I remember that.


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## BSDBernd (Jan 9, 2015)

I have found the following page:
http://www.netbsd.org/ports/macppc/models.html
It seems that your iMac is supported by NetBSD. 
Quite impressive that the NetBSD people even manage to get their OS on computers like the Atari Falcon, TT etc. and lots of other computers.
We had a Falcon at home, if only we had kept it ;(. I would like to run BSD everywhere .


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## kpa (Jan 9, 2015)

BSDBernd said:


> I have found the following page:
> http://www.netbsd.org/ports/macppc/models.html
> It seems that your iMac is supported by NetBSD.
> Quite impressive that the NetBSD people even manage to get their OS on computers like the Atari Falcon, TT etc. and lots of other computers.
> We had a Falcon at home, if only we had kept it ;(. I would like to run BSD everywhere .



I do remember tinkering with a BSD OS on an Amiga 3000 in the early 90's, it must have been NetBSD in its very early stages.


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