The IBM PowerPC 970 CPUs are well-designed, high-performance chips that ship in millions of end-user systems under Apple Computers’ Power Macintosh G5 moniker. These CPUs greatly lower the bar for 64-bit computing on the desktop and on small servers. Currently, Terra Soft’s beta Y-HPC is one of only two 64-bit Linuxes that run on G5s. As their names imply, the G5-enabled betas — both 32- and 64-bit versions — are for evaluation only. This article is an early look at the promise of Linux on a G5 and is intended for developers interested in trying out this combination in anticipation of production-ready releases to come.
Yellow Dog Linux on Power Mac G5
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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http://www.metadistribution.org/gentoo/experimental
LMBench doesn’t do any work, so it doesn’t really matter what compiler flags you use for it. Since LMBench measures the kernel, maybe he should have compiled the kernel with different flags (which also wouldn’t have made a difference, but some things have to be seen to be believed).
Though I’m an Apple user I have to ask why anybody would install Linux on a G5 ? Compared to AMD 64-bit PCs, that can be built for peanuts, and do the same job, why would anyone use a relatively expensive Apple offering ?
Unfortunately I don’t own a G5 but if I did I’d install it for a look. I think the main reason is that you can run both Linux and OSX apps on the same box (and with MOL, at the same time), so if you can’t afford a particular OSX app, at least you can grab an OSS one to fill the gap. It all goes back to the GNU/Linux mantra – Choice!
I and a few other posters asked the same question a few days ago on a similar thread. It boiled down to “because it’s there”, “for the sake of choice in OS”, also because PPC platform offers some things not found on the x86 platform. Al wrote a wonderful post on why PPC over x86. Check it out: http://www.osnews.com/comment.php?news_id=7886&offset=15&rows=30 (towards the bottom)
“These CPUs greatly lower the bar for 64-bit computing on the desktop”
…shouldn’t that read “..raise the bar..”?
well, lower the bar for entry? The more prosumer level 64-bit computers out there, the cheaper and more common they’ll become.
I’d guestimate that alot of it would be AltiVec, nothing in the x86 camp can even remotely compare. Hell of a thing. Also, while a Opteron could be built “for peanuts” not many IT shops build their own servers. Compare Apple’s XServe offerings to Dell or IBM, and their more similar. Also, the G5/970 has hella bandwidth. 😀
I’m new to Macs and hadn’t heard of Mac On Linux (MOL) before. Do you know whether there is some software that does the reverse ? What I’d like to do is run Linux in a virtual machine on my OS X desktop – not the other way around which is what MOL seems to offer.
Good article. Well written and thought out.
–“Though I’m an Apple user I have to ask why anybody would install Linux on a G5 ? Compared to AMD 64-bit PCs, that can be built for peanuts, and do the same job, why would anyone use a relatively expensive Apple offering ?”–
The G5 is a dual processor 64-Bit machine. They are extremely cheap compared to a dual Opteron or Itanium machine. Apple hardware, especially in their PowerMac line, is always the best of the best, making their machines far more reliable and sturdy than a machine thrown together at NewEgg.
Though I’m an Apple user I have to ask why anybody would install Linux on a G5 ? Compared to AMD 64-bit PCs, that can be built for peanuts, and do the same job, why would anyone use a relatively expensive Apple offering ?
Usually because white box, build your own, Opteron systems tend to not come with any support/warranty, and sound like the space shuttle taking off while running. Apple makes a much more pleasant workstation. You get what you pay for.
Though I’m an Apple user I have to ask why anybody would install Linux on a G5 ? Compared to AMD 64-bit PCs, that can be built for peanuts, and do the same job, why would anyone use a relatively expensive Apple offering ?
G5’s offer significant savings in power consumptions/heat dissapation over opterons usually.
Since MS bought VirtualPC from Connectix, I’m not sure if you can still install Linux into a VirtualPC VM, but here’s an article about an older version that seemed to work OK:
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,48964,00.html
A better option might just be to use FINK and the built-in XWindows. At least that way it’ll run the OSS apps natively.
http://fink.sourceforge.net/
Good luck
You can install rootless xwindows and it works well. Just a quick recompile. Otherwise there are a few projects with installers and whatnot for os x. Gimp and other such linux standby applications are available, and all within the mac os. You could even run a different window manager, like gnome or kde=’s and still get it to be running os x apps alongside. It is possible.
there is currently no program like MOL for running a virtual linux inside os x (without x86 emulation!). It’s coming soon though i hear. last i talked to the MOL developers, they’re working on it so we can eventually run linux inside os x fully ppc native, just like vmware can run windows inside linux, or linux inside linux, etc.
1) Install X11 and then use Fink to get the Linux apps you want. Switch between windowing environments (X11 and Aqua) at will.
2) Set up your Mac as a dual boot machine.
It is like that, that Linux is more suited for the IBM G5 than OS X.
No wonder in fact. OS X itself lacks performance. Nothing new in here.
i’m obtaining about 40% slower (than linux, not osx kernel) results running the tests on a 2.6.7/gcc3.3.3 vmware virtual machine (windows xp host) running on my banias 1.4 notebook… is g5 that slow? or is it a matter of linux kernel running lot better on x86?
Have they sorted out the issue where the fans on the G5 will be running at full blast and sound like a hurricane?