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Linux on a Mac, Part 1 Well webmasters, ISPs, and maybe a friend or two of yours use the Operating System Linux or a "Flavor" of Linux/UNIX. Well, the truth is, this is a very powerful and nicely designed OS. I got into Linux a little while ago when my friend started talking about it. He was the network administrator for a local ISP near me. He talked about it and said that he loved it and I wanted to try it out for myself. The problem turned out to be is that I have a Mac and Linux runs mostly on PC Hardware. I got really bummed out because I have never heard of a Macintosh version of Linux, so I decided to search on Yahoo for some info. I thought maybe there was some way to run Linux without giving my Mac up. I scored big time! I found 3 different "ports" of Linux to the Macintosh operating system that would run on my computer. The first is Yellow Dog Linux which is designed to run on Macintosh PowerPC computers. This includes the 603, 604, and G3 processors. At the time I had an original PowerPC 6100 which has a PowerPC 601 processor. Not a good match! At least I knew that there was a Macintosh Linux out there. The next hit I got was MKLinux. This is a version of Linux that runs on top of the Mach 3.0 kernel (developed by Carnegie Mellon University's Research Institute). This version of "MacLinux" runs on the original 6100 computers and other first wave PowerPC's. I was glad to see the 6100 in the compatible list. I went to Borders and picked up the MKLinux book which included a release version of the OS version 2.1. I had to go out and get another Hard Drive on which to install MKLinux. The base installation of MKLinux requires at least 500MB of space. I installed MKLinux easily. All I had to do was just partition the disk and tell the installer where to install what parts of the OS. Once the installer completed doing its thing, I rebooted my machine to see if it worked right. Well, I logged in to the OS and found out that a lot of the features in the book did not work on my computer. The only solution was to upgrade the OS to a newer version or Developer Release 3. This was the last Release of the OS because the Apples developers who were working on the MKLinux port of Linux to the Mac, had left to undergo the base development of MacOS X. To make a long story short, I eventually got the system up and running with a new version of the OS. The final version I read and heard about was LinuxPPC. From what I heard and read, LinuxPPC is the most supported version of Linux for the Macintosh. This version supports PPC machines, but not the NuBus machines and PDS machines I used to have. This version has a ton of features, and is supposed to be faster than MKLinux. The only thing I can really say if you are interested in Linux for the Macintosh is to go to MKLinux's web sites ( www.mklinux.apple.com and www.mklinux.org) to find information on whether it works for your machine. If you have a G3, 603 or 604 processor you will want to look at Yellow Dog Linux or LinuxPPC. Linux is a really nice way to revive your old Hardware, if, of course, its PowerPC. There are also some other versions that will run on 68k machines at www.netb sd.com. If you are interested in using this system, I recommend going and picking up some books on how to use it. It is completely different from the MacOS or Windows ( although it has something similar to Windows called X11, or XWindows that gives you a GUI ). It is more like DOS, but much better! I personally do not like DOS and would rather run Linux. If you are interested in this OS go to the web sites and get some information on them. Happy Hacking! For those of you still interested in my past articles on Mac Linux, I am republishing them here. Linux on a Mac, Part 2, and my new column, Linux on a Mac is Back!! PS: Here are the links to the different versions of Linux for the Mac: www.netbsd.com and www.macbsd.com - The NetBSD port of a Unix-like system to Apple Macintosh 68k and PPC machines www.mklinux.apple.com and www.mklinux.org - I do some development for this distribution. I'm working on getting the Mach Kernel to support larger partitions if anyone is interested.... :-) www.linuxppc.com and www.linuxppc.org - The one and only LinuxPPC! www.turbolinux.com - TurboLinux for Intel and PPC computers www.maclinux.com - A link to Yellow Dog www.yellowdoglinux.com - Linux for PowerPC based Machines www.tenon.com -MachTen and other Macintosh Products
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