[luau] PowerPC system for Linux

[mathisha]

Well, I had different distros of Linuxppc (Linuxppc 2000, yellowdog, 
SUSE) on my mac till OSX came out ;). These are some of the sites I used 
to keep an eye on. (on the hardware side)..

There's an open PPC processor project
http://www.openppc.org/
which might be a place to start.

The folks who make the yellowdog
http://www.yellowdoglinux.com/
distro of PPC has come up with their own PPC motherboard. First time 
I've heard of it but it might be of interest to you
http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/products/boxer/

For a comprehensive stash of hardware info on mac hardware there's
www.everymac.com

www.lowendmac.com
Its an odd but interesting site for all sorts of misc. hardware related 
questions. Specially handy for esoteric hardware questions on ye olde macs.

http://www.penguinppc.org/
This seems (or used to when I read it often) the most distro independent 
site dedicated to getting things to work on ppc machines.

And of course the a FAQ...
http://lppcfom.sourceforge.net/fom-serve/cache/350.html
This doesn't seem to have been updated in a while but its worth it to 
check out the hardware compatibility list and links.

A note about Linux on ppc machines: the distros tend to be a version 
behind the x86 releases. For the slightly more adventurous, there are 
netbsd and openbsd ports too. Plus I've heard or folks running just the 
Darwin side of OSX with X windows.
There's a weird, weird relationship between Apple and the GNU folks 
(documented in all its gory detail on wwww.macslash.com). The bottom 
line (from what I've read over the centuries) is that Apple isn't happy 
about people running anything but an Apple OS on Macs (but won't say so 
very loudly).  So there's much mucking around with firmware to get 
distors to boot. I wrecked my mac many times in the early days. Maybe 
its better now, Specially with the yellow dog folks getting into the 
hardware side. Never tried their hardware though... My personal take on 
it is that Linux PPC is perfect for giving new life to old mac aren't 
"supported" (officially) by OSX.

Good luck!

mathisha