OpenSUSE for 64 bit PowerMac

[jsclipse]

I have an old (2005) PowerMac that just got out of the shop for a new power supply. I'm installing a new hard drive and have no operating system for it.

Is OpenSUSE a good selection for a 64 bit PowerMac?

Are there any incompatibility issues?

Anything I should do before installation?

I have read most of the pre-install instructions and I'm wondering if:

1. Will Open Firmware allow Target Disk Mode (like OS X) to boot from firewire drives using Linux?

2. What applications / operating systems are best with 64 bit PowerPC machines?

3. Is network administration / simple file hosting / and network security straightforward with Linux (OpenSUSE)?

4. Is network backup software native / available to Linux distros?

5. Does OpenSUSE or any other Linux OS work well with Dual Processors? Native Support?

I will have tons of questions.

I use OpenSUSE on a laptop and I seem to like it fairly well. It is not UBUNTU, and that's a good thing. I like how OpenSUSE feels. I've never used Linux on a PowerPC, but I use several Macintosh G4 and G5 machines.

I will greatly and eagerly accept help from anyone with PowerPC experience.

Thank you

[rokytnji]

I will greatly and eagerly accept help from anyone with PowerPC experience.

Sorry, the closest I ever got to a Mac was when I bought one for the wife.

As far as 64 bit Open Suse. I don't know if you have visited this site yet.
penguinppc.org: Distributions

[coopstah13]

Active 64-bit PPC distros:
DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD.

Active 32-bit PPC distros:
DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD.

Many more options for 32-bits...

[coopstah13]

I would like to add that opensuse doesn't even support PPC in any form.

[HROAdmin26]

While openSuSE didn't release a PPC build of 11.2, there is an 11.1 build available.

openSuSE Downloads

Further PPC support is definitely in doubt tho, as discussed by the POWER@SUSE group:

On 11-25-2009 Michael Loeffler responded to this bugzilla post:

https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=557580

Concerning the status of POWER/PPC Support for openSUSE 11.2 since no media was available:

"we (Novell/SUSE employees) won't provide a ppc distribution anymore. The effort for such a code stream is not justified by 0.3% out of all installations (see Distribution of architecture at Statistics - openSUSE). Nevertheless we will support anyone who'd like to take over the task to build an openSUSE ppc distribution."

[jsclipse]

I am glad for snow. It prevents me from participating in commerce (in a way). It also gives me time to read.

I have visited the Fedora web site and have downloaded a fedora 12 PPC dvd and a YDL DVD. They both seem focused (somewhat) toward recycling PPC computers for alternative network administrative and storage use - (data handlers, file servers, web servers, network data resource and repair diagnostics).

I have received several e-mail notifications from friends (thank you) that OpenSUSE does not support PPC and most Linux based OS versions have limited, if any, support. That being said, I am sad for my PowerMacintosh PPC. I like OPENsuse. I will continue to use it on my laptop; however, the laptop hasn't seen a network connection in a month.

The consensus seems that YDL is best for Power Machines with Fedora being a good 2nd alternative. I will focus my attentions on Fedora as soon as I get the HD and Video Card in the G5.