thus Brian Durant spake:
> On Jun 24, 2006, at 22:28, Shane Ambler wrote:
> 
>> On 24/6/2006 8:01, "Brian Durant" <globetrotterdk@diplomatic-immunity.dk>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> Wow, so the situation is even worse than with Linux? I don't really
>>> get what the problem is. The argument always seems to be based on the
>>> fact that there is such a plethora of different combinations and
>>> makes of hardware (cards, motherboards, etc.), but on the PPC
>>> platform, Apple has always maintained such a strict control on the
>>> hardware. The only time when this policy changed was during the clone
>>> period.
>>
>> The biggest problem comes from custom chips that apple don't release  
>> tech
>> specs on how to write drivers for them.
>>
>>> I haven't been able to get Linux working on either my recently
>>> purchased G3 PDQ or my G5 single (PowerMac 9.1) - except for Fedora
>>> Core PPC 5 (no sound). I would have thought that the BSDs being more
>>> closely related to OS X, the situation would be less problematic.
>>> Apple (claims at least, it) is supporting the Open Source community
>>> and I assumed that would include opening up for Open Source drivers
>>> for Apple gardware.
>>>
>>> What are the alternatives for the G3 PDQ? Is it possible to strip
>>> down Jaguar (OS X 10.2.8) so that it only runs opgradable X Window
>>> apps? Many OS X apps have passed the cut off OS (Jaguar) for the PDQ.
>>> I know that a modified BootX exists that allows installation of
>>> Tiger, but I really just got the PDQ to run a Linux or BSD system on.
>>>
>>> Any advice would be appreciated.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>> Brian
>>>
>>
>> I would have said that Yellow Dog Linux has the best Mac linux support 
>> that
>> I know of but they seem to have disappeared recently.
>>
>> You can get a copy of darwin (OS X without the gui) and run that with X
>> Windows if you wish or leave it as a CLI machine depending on what you 
>> want
>> to use it for.
>> http://www.gnu-darwin.org is putting together a system based on darwin 
>> and X
>> Windows.
>>
>> You can download darwin from 
>> http://www.opensource.apple.com/darwinsource/
>> and use netBSD pkgsrc to add what you want.
>>
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> Shane Ambler
>> 007Marketing.com
>> Shane@007Marketing.com
> 
> Many thanks Shane. I have a few follow-up questions:
> 
> 1) Do you know anything about the installer (graphic, text or...)

last time i tried (2001?) it was purely text-based; should be the same
today.

> 2) Are netBSD pkgsrc and X Windows already part of Darwin or...?

you have to get pkgsrc (ftp, cvs, however) since it's not included, X11
should be provided on the cd and installed, if you choose to do so.

> 3) The file is called "darwinppc-602.cdr.gz" The ".gz" I recognize, but 
> how does the ".cdr" compare to the ".iso" files that Linux distros use?

you can change .cdr to .iso, it's the same (apple slang).

> Cheers,
> 
> Brian

HTH,

-- 
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