Getting Started, Documentation, Tips & Tricks

Powermac G5s are nice machines and rather cheap, but too noisy if you want to leave it running; quieter than an octane at least. Also, beware some versions of the liquid cooling system. 10.5.8 is starting to be long in the tooth as an everyday machine (tho OP will probably disagree). PPC minis only go up to the G4 but they are also only $50 or so, probably more in EU.

MorphOS looks very interesting, and they support the mini G4, powerbook G4, etc. I might have to get one myself and try it out.

Yeah, maybe a Cyberstorm 060 card with a PPC CPU on would be a solution. I think what I really want is to run on a real Amiga system. But AmigaOs 4.1 does kinda looks like a real successor to the original AmigaOS. It's just in that case I have to run it on a system that doesn't "feels" like an Amiga, but still costs a lot of money. So the Power Mac route with MorphOs might be a better alternative costwise. But If I'm gonna put in a lot of money, why not go the route of getting me a real A4000 with the expansions I need instead. Aaaah, too many options..

Thanks for the links. I think I have been visiting amigakit before.

Talked with my girlfriend about maybe getting me an A4000, she didn't looked too happy about me bringing in even more old computers into our home. But incredibly she did understand why I feel the way I do about why I want one. So I think it is okay, but she has one condition, it can't be yellowed, and I kinda agree. Just makes it harder to get one in nice condition.

MorphOS is neat but not a good fit for the G5. The G5s are really only happy running OS X. Everything else has "stuff that doesn't quite work." If you really want to run MorphOS, get one of the supported G4s; they are much cheaper and easier to maintain as well.

The only two G5s worth owning are the dual 2.3, the fastest air-cooled, and the quad 2.5, the fastest Power Mac ever built and the one with the most reliable liquid cooling system. The others are either not significantly faster than the cheaper and more reliable Power Mac G4s they replaced, or they have too many problems with their power supply or cooling system. The last-generation G5s are also quite power hungry. That said, I'm typing this message on my quad G5.

I run 10.4. Realistically, unless you have a specific interest, the best reason to keep a Power Mac around is Classic, and 10.5 doesn't have Classic. TenFourFox covers my browsing needs, I don't have to rebuy Photoshop or QuarkXPress, and I can run all my regular Classic apps. So the G5 is the optimal machine for me.

Yeah, I have had a good read up on the subject, and for a power mac, its the G4 versions 3.4 to 3.6 that seems to work best for MorphOs. Too bad, I would really like to have a G5 instead, since they are sexy. The G4 where ugly when it was released, and is ugly today. Oh well.

But as you said, damn, they are cheap, and there is a bunch of them out for sale. So might pick one up anyway. They might grow on me eventually.

Thanks for you nice tips. I might get one G5 anyway, to run OS X on, Would actually be nice to have one machine running OS X in my home. So the dual 2.3 or the quad 2.5 G5 is the best ones then. Will keep my eyes open for those. Thanks

what's your favourite G4 chc?

iirc the last ones (mirror door) were known as wind-tunnels due to a batch of rejected propellers that apple used as cooling fans inside the case (or was it the psu fan?)

my favourite G4 was the quicksilver. clean lines, easy to upgrade, rock-solid piece o' tool :)

I actually like the MDD a lot, but my MDD has chewed through two power supplies. On the other hand, it's not as loud as the G5, and with the 1.8GHz dual 7447A card I installed, it absolutely rockets through stuff in OS 9.

But short of the MDD, I'm a fan of the Sawtooth. Cheap, reasonably power thrifty, hackable, upgradeable, common as dirt. I use one as a file server (with a gigabit ethernet card and a FW800-connected RAID array and a crap load of RAM), and it serves very well in this capacity.

I recently obtained a Quad 2.5GHz PowerMac with the liquid cooling system. As you say it's a potential minefield in terms of if it breaks but thankfully there are loads of really good articles that people have written about maintaining it, repairing it, identifying if it's about to go pop... so I wouldn't let it put you off

Machine seems pretty brisk too and is a bit quieter than the regular air cooled Dual 2GHz G5 I replaced it with.

Looks like MorpOs will be developed for the Dual 2GHz G5 powermac also. Will be here with us in January next year if everything goes all right.

Good news for me then, so G5 it is for MorpOS.