[Posted and mailed]
Quote:> Hello
> I'm considering bying an used iMac to run Linux. It should be as cheap as
> possible, so it'll probably be one of the first models.
I've got a 266MHz iMac, so I'll answer what I can based on that....
Quote:> Here's what I want to be able to do with it:
> 1) Use a 1024x768 console, while running X on another virtual console
I'm not 100% certain what you mean by this. Most people run one instance
of X. If you mean you want X and a text-mode console running, that's
certainly possible. I don't recall offhand if I've ever tried running
two instances of X on my iMac, but I don't see why it wouldn't be
possible; I can certainly do it on x86 systems, and I don't know of any
reason why it wouldn't work on an iMac.
Quote:> 2) Run WindowMaker in 1024x768 and at least 16bit color depth (no need for KDE
> or Gnome)
Should be no problem. I've run mine with icewm at 1024x768 and no KDE or
GNOME, 16 bpp. You'll probably find XFree86 4.x to be superior to 3.3.x;
I've never been able to get 3.3.x to behave optimally on my iMac.
Quote:> 3) Surf (with Opera, Konqueror or a similar, fast browser)
No problem. I've not used Opera on PPC, but Konqueror runs just fine.
Quote:> 4) Listen to mp3's while doing 1, 2 and 3
I'm not sure about this. I've never gotten sound to work, but I've also
not tried all that hard (it's not much of a priority for me). Certainly
the sound auto-configuration tools in SuSE 7.3 doesn't work.
Quote:> 5) Having a keyboard with the Danish letters ??? (should be no problem since
> I'm going to buy the iMac here in Denmark), and preferrably a mouse with two
> buttons and a scroll wheel.
I can't speak to the Danish keyboard, but a three-button or
two-button-plus-scroll-wheel mouse is workable. I've got a Logitech
Trackman Marble that works fine. I've not bothered to configure the
scroll functions, so I use the scroll button wheel as an ordinary
button.
Quote:> Currently I am using an old PC with a Celeron 300a processor and 192mbs of ram,
> and am not having problems with speed. Will the oldest iMac with a 233mhz
> processor and more than 128mbs of ram be as fast (or whatever you call it :) as
> the PC?
It'll be in the same ballpark, but the details will depend on the
software you run. The last I heard, GCC for PPC wasn't as optimized as
GCC for x86, so you're at a disadvantage there, which can cut into some
of the PPC's cycle-for-cycle speed advantage over x86 CPUs.
Quote:> About #5, can I just plug in any USB-keyboard and/or -mouse, and expect it to
> work?
Yes.
Quote:> And for #4, how is the quality of the built-in speakers?
Very poor. (Based on my experienced in MacOS.)
Quote:> The reason I want an iMac is that I like the design, and especially the fact
> that it takes up very little room compared to a generic PC. I'm also curios
> about trying Linux on other architectures than x86.
There are a few compact x86-based computers. eMachines used to make one,
for instance, although I think they've been discontinued, and I don't
know how well they work with Linux.
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