[ Thanks to David A.
Gatwood for this announcement: ]
For many years, Linux has existed on the Apple PowerMac family
of computers. Linux/PPC kernels were available for PCI PowerMacs.
MkLinux kernels were available for 6100, 7100, and 8100 machines
and NuBus PowerBooks. But one very popular family of Mac was left
out in the cold…. Until now.
At the stroke of midnight Pacific time, The MkLinxu Project
announced support for the Power Macintosh 5200, 5300, 6200, and
6300 family of personal computers. This marks the first time that
any free-standing OS other than MacOS has been available for these
machines.
The “Performa family”, as many of these machines are also known,
was primarily targeted towards home users at a relatively low price
point. “We estimate that there are thousands of these things out
there, mostly sitting in closets and basements. They’re just too
slow to run current versions of MacOS,” said David Gatwood,
Development Coordinator for the MkLinux Project.
Bleeding edge test kernels are now available from the MkLinux ftp
site, along with some information about the kernel porting effort.
As with any good Linux project, the Performa kernels are 100% free
and open source.
For more information, please visit the MkLinux web site at