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Comment by Ecco | Hacker News Reader

I quite don't understand the appeal. If you want a PPC laptop, just buy an iBook G4, they sell for $30 on eBay…

I'm guessing POWER has surpassed what a laptop from 2003 can do since the iBook G4 was released. What if you want a better display? More expansion? A GPU? Bluetooth 4? I'd be surprised if an iBook G4 can run a modern Linux stack.

32-bit PPC was recently dropped from Ubuntu (and Debian IIRC).

It can run Ubuntu-MATE 16.04, OpenBSD, MorphOS and more.

It's barely usable for web browsing. Even with upgraded hardware (1.25GB RAM and a CF card instead of hard drive) Firefox on Ubuntu and TenFourFox on Mac OS X Tiger are really damn slow. OWB (WebKit) on MorphOS is a bit better, but still not what I'd use for everyday work.

Yeah, I was really hoping Linux could resurrect my old PowerBook G4. It had great specs for its day and was still in great shape.

After trying a whole load of options, Lubuntu 14.04 was the best but there wasn’t anything which provided a modern web experience.

I briefly thought of trying to make a Raspberry Pi casemod with it before realising how hard it would be - seemed a shame to get rid of a perfectly good screen and enclosure just because the processor is no longer supported.

iBook G4 on Mac OS X Tiger is slow. It's borderline unusable compared to any Intel Mac, even if you stick to "stock" (i.e. use Safari for web browsing, Mail for mail, etc.). I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Me neither. Also the "Why PPC" isn't exactly convincing. I'd happily buy a non-x86 notebook but I don't see any reason for choosing PPC honestly.

Linux used to be a thing on the Playstation 3 too until Sony's management intervened.

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