Author Topic: Reusing a PowerMacG5  (Read 2830 times)

Kraezymann

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Reusing a PowerMacG5
« on: May 19, 2016, 03:07:54 PM »
I have come into possession of an excellent condition 2.5 dual-core PowerMac G5.

Other than a space heater, what can I do with it? I'm probably going to install twofourfox and vlc to make it sort of usable, but I'd really like to be able to turn it into my Stepmania machine or a secondary machine to take some of the load off while streaming. Ideas?

Spectere

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Re: Reusing a PowerMacG5
« Reply #1 on: May 20, 2016, 09:55:13 AM »
Seeing as you can't bring it any higher than OS X 10.5, I'd probably recommend dropping a Linux or *BSD distro on there (unless you're specifically looking to learn or use OS X). Leopard was released in 2007, and the Intel transition started happening in 2006, so those two factors are working against you big time.

As far as supported applications go, TenFourFox has always been behind mainline Firefox, VLC for PPC is stuck at 2.0.2, and I doubt StepMania 5 has a Mac/PPC build anymore. You can probably build some of that stuff yourself, but the build tools are so outdated nowadays that even rolling your own build can be a little rough.

I have an iMac G4 sitting on my desk that I pretty much only used it for compiling the Mac/PPC build of MegaZeux and for playing Diablo 2. Considering Blizzard released a Mac/x86 build of Diablo 2 this year, it now only has one real purpose. :)
"This is a machine for making cows."