can you put linux or os/x on an old imac ?
 

can you put linux or os/x on an old imac ? any ideas or leads ?

OS 10.2 will run on macs way back including an imac, 10.3 I believe runs on any mac that shipped with USB in it from the factory so that covers the imacs, I'm pretty sure it will.

How old?

68040 Motorola Sets?

NO clue really on that un.

usb equiped imacs and on, i believe.

ack, can't remember for sure.

The oldest imac was a G3 233 and all imacs had usb in from the factory, in fact the imac was the first mac to use usb and they elimated the floppy drive.

HAhah you don't know what 68040's were?

I stand corrected he did say "Old Imac"

Read the small print Alienq ya fucken dick!

uh, where did you get that?

Linux will run on PPC.

that's what I was wondering. the guy clearly says an old imac, not an old mac.

68040 Macs were basically the Chip set used before the "PowerMac, IMAC" generations.

68040 Based mac users got really screwed since support for the OS dropped out way back when.

Just in case you don't believe me, when I said it will run on an old imac. Here's the requirement page for you, even the oldest and very first imac can run 10.3.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/upgrade/requirements.html

I have a little nephew with a four year old imac that wants to learn a linux flavor on his system. Preferably something easy to install anyway.

Thanks, I'll get that for him.

He has one of these

http://61.194.6.236/gif/99sfexp2/imac/green.jpg

edit: nevermind, already posted

Yeah that will work then. And the OS is simply awesome, you should even check it out yourself when he installs it.

Is it $130 or can you get it cheaper somewhere else ?

I don't know about OS X but I think it would. The oldest machine I've seen run OS X was one of those old clam shell like iBooks.
I know for a fact that Linux will definately run. If you are new to Linux and just want to play around I would suggest you try out Yellow Dog Linux (http://www.yellowdoglinux.com) since they specialize in creating a distro that runs on the mac. If you want to make a learning experience out of it I would suggest you install Gentoo Linux on it (http://www.gentoo.org). It's not as hard as it might first seem, lots of people to help you in the forums (http://forums.gentoo.org) and you will learn a lot.

Looks good, thanks. Not sure whether to go with Panther or Yellow Dog now :/

Go Panther all the way, look around online about the cheapest you can find it for is about $90. Try checking out http://www.dealmac.com they have mac deals everyday and update several times a day.

Excellent. Thanks. Macs are so sexy. I think they must be evil, and the devil is part of it.

LinuxPPC or Yellowdog will run just fine on that...

I used to run the very early LinuxPPC kernel on a G3/233 (not imac, desktop) when it was first ported to the G3 chip, worked "great" :1orglaugh