What is the best Linux distribution for PowerBook G4?

Question

I have seen answers posted on this from a while back. I can't afford another computer right now and would like to make my PowerBook fast and light. I have even considered trying to install Google's Chrome OS on it although I don't know that that is even possible.

1.67 GHz PowerPC G4
2 GB Ram

I am worried that any distribution I get will be too resource heavy and just bog down my machine. I basically want to be able to quickly boot, browse the web, check email, etc. (Hence the open-mind to Chrome OS)

Answer 1

Ok for PPC computers the best options are

1) PPC builds of Debian http://www.debian.org/ports/powerpc/

2) Yellowdoglinux http://www.yellowdoglinux.com/

3) Ubuntu https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCDownloads

Answer 2

Powerbook G4 Linux

Answer 3

You could try out the Chromium OS. Its the open source version of the Chrome OS (read: unofficial), much like the open source Chromium Browser as compared to the official Chrome Browser. So it might be lacking certain features that the actual Chrome OS has.





The following video shows you how to install the Chromium OS onto a USB drive. Basically after installation, the machine boots up from the thumb drive to run Chromium OS (you have to change the boot option to USB while starting up), while not installing or overwriting anything on the internal hard disk itself (at least I think so). So it might be good for a trial run if you aren't sure that you want to overwrite your current OS.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY51qKLGFnE





Its also on wiki. The most popular version is by Hexxah, which is the one the above video attempts to install.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_OS



[Edit] Oops sorry didn't realise that your processor isn't intel based.

You could try powerpup or slackintosh for ppcs.



http://karkuta.drivehq.com/

http://slackintosh.workaround.ch/index.html

Answer 4

Tinycore linux is very small 12mb and should work fine for what your doing but I am not sure if it is compatible with power pc processor architecture so you might want to try openbsd which supports this procesor archtiecture it os very light weight and is in my opinion the worlds most secure pperating system also you could try freebsd but again i dont know if it supports your processor architecture