Recently, I got involved with trying out different brands of Linux on my roommate's x86 computer. That led me to think: "Hmmm, I wonder if there is such a thing as a Linux Live CD for PowerPCs, so that I could try Linux on my G5 without worrying about installations." Sure enough, I found a couple different varieties:

• Gentoo
• Gnoppix and Knoppix (with KDE)
• Rock Linux
• SystemRescueCd
• Ubuntu and Kubuntu (with KDE)

Out of these, the three that interested me most were Gentoo, Rock Linux, and Ubuntu (Gnoppix is simply built upon Ubuntu, and SystemRescueCd is not really for the end user). Thus, I downloaded the Live CD images, and burnt them to discs (Ubuntu's disc required FireStarter to burn). Please note, these Live CDs work best with new world ROM based computers (Blue and White G3s and later), and may take some tweaking to work with older PowerMacs. Starting up from a Linux Live CD is just like starting up from any CD on a Mac, simply hold down the 'c' key during boot up. You will be presented with a prompt which will allow you to select the kernel you wish to run. Don't worry, there are instructions explaining what you need to do to proceed with the boot process.

Gentoo had a lot of promise, as it was the only one of the three that was multiprocessor aware. It did boot up the G5 just fine, and it even displayed two little Linux penguins at the top of the screen, which tells me that both CPUs were recognized. But, here is where the problem comes in. Gentoo does not ship with a desktop manager (similar to the Finder in OS X) pre-installed. Therefore, you are dumped into a command prompt, which will be daunting to the non-Linux user.

If you were to actually install Gentoo on your hard drive, you could use their "Portage" system to easy download and install either Gnome or KDE (whichever you prefer). However, on a Live CD, you cannot modify the system, so this is not possible. While you could run a very fast file server with just a command prompt, most users won't get much from this CD.

Unfortunately, Rock Linux did not fair well on my G5. Upon booting, I would consistently get a white Open Firmware screen with some black text detailing the problem. As it turns out, the video card drivers do not recognize the 9800 Pro, so I could never get it to boot my G5.

I don't really like wasting CDs, so I figured why not try this in the iBook (seeing as the development for Rock Linux on PowerPCs is done with a PowerBook). To my surprise, it booted fine, although into a command prompt. Luckily, the old standby command "startx" started to load the desktop manager, but I ended up with a corrupted display that got me nowhere. Therefore, Rock Linux was a total bust on two computers. Time to put that distro on the shelf until a much more updated version is released.

Finally, onto Ubuntu. Upon starting up from the Ubuntu CD, I was again prompted by the kernel selection prompt. But this time, I was given many more options. Trying a couple of them resulted in the prefect combination for my G5 (live-power4) which resulted in Linux starting up. Once I figured that out, I was presented with a few question screens to customize my session. After answering these, Ubuntu kept booting, right into the Desktop Manager (Gnome in this case). Finally, something that works well with the G5.

Playing around with Ubuntu was a real treat, as it was very responsive especially considering it was booted off a CD. Most applications launched fairly quickly (except OpenOffice, but that loads slow no matter what system you use). Surfing the web was nice and swift, after finding the place to adjust network settings (it's located under the System > Administartion > Networking menu). After using many different distros of Linux on a wide selection of x86 computers, I was more than satisfied with the speed of Ubuntu. In fact, I think it was faster than any x86 Linux I have used to date!

Of course, not everything worked as well as one would hope. First, only one of the two CPUs was recognized. If both were active, I imagine it would have been even faster. Also, there is only basic video card support, so no hardware acceleration was available for games or screensavers, resulting in low frames per second. Furthermore, the sound did not work at all on my G5, but I have heard it works on some other Macs. Moreover, Ubuntu has no support for HFS+ disks, so I could not see the hard drive while booted from the CD. Reformatting would be required if I wanted that functionality.

Countering those set backs are a couple nice features. First, there were a bunch of different apps included. These included internet based programs, office productivity programs, games, and more. This allows you to explore the world of Linux with ease. Also included were about a gazillion screen savers. If you previewed each one for only a couple seconds, it would probably take about 3-4 hours to get through them all. That's a LOT of screen savers. Finally, the most surprising thing to happen. I plugged in my USB pen drive, and the drive's icon popped up on the desktop, just like OS X. It was a wonderful feeling to have such a familiar feature; something Windows users can only dream of.

Overall, if I were to recommend a Linux Live CD to someone with a PowerMac, it would definitely be Ubuntu. It comes with different versions of the kernel, to allow booting on most machines. Gnome was very fast on my machine, even with only one CPU active. And maybe best of all, it came with a bunch of software to play around with. If you have been afraid to play with Linux on your Mac, don't be. The Ubuntu Linux experience was a great one, which I intend to repeat.