My first desktop linux box was a PowerMac 8100/80 with MkLinux, probably sometime in 1996. At launch it didn't have support for multi-button mice, which made X11 kind of hard to use (center-button was the only way to paste text in many cases back then), as Apple only shipped a one button mouse by default so that was all that was supported.
As an impertinent high schooler, I emailed Logitech asking for one of their 3 button ADB trackballs, saying I was going to add 3 button support to MkLinux. They actually replied and sent me one. I managed to come up with some code that kind of worked, and sent off a patch, but by that time I think someone else fixed the multibutton mouse issue before me.
Good times back then. It was such a step up in terms of multitasking, and a step back in terms of UI consistency from classic MacOS.
When I went off to university a year later, Apple wasn't doing so hot so, so I built myself a Pentium Pro machine. Prices on those parts went through the floor as the Pentium II had come out, and Linux was all 32 bit so no 16 bit perf issues the PPro was known for. Dual CPU board (single CPU at first) and as another processor and memory upgrades getting cheaper it was a nice machine through all of college.
Then after graduation I got a job after MacOS X came out, and jumped back to Apple products as they were the only game for unix on a laptop with power management that didn't suck in the early 2000's.
This was the first linux that I ran on a Powermac 6500 for years since I was never a fan of MacOS 8 or 9. There were some compatibility issues and bugs, but it was a nice alternative to MacOS before the PowerPC linux distros came about.
At an early start up I worked for, we had a bunch of PowerPC Mac pizza boxes running System 7. The experience was terrible, they crashed or locked up constantly.
I eventually took a few of them and installed MkLinux and they were rock-solid workhorses for years after, doing things like light file serving, Usenet proxy and a firewall.
I worked at an early ISP with a web development department. A couple of the guys had Macs with System 7.x. The things would lock up or crash on a daily basis and require near daily reboots. Some of that early software, especially Netscape Navigator, was incredibly unstable. Fortunately, we had Sun Sparc and SGI boxes for the servers.
The first non-MacOS OS I ever booted was MkLinux. On a PowerPC 9500. I convinced my mom to drive to a Borders book store to get a book about it. There were no books about Linux at that location in whatever part of the 90s. It booted to a CLI and I had no idea what to do. I didn’t have a second computer to look up commands (as though I’d have the vocabulary to find enough info on a dialup connection to restore usability same-day). I think I reinstalled MacOS 8 or 9 same evening. I needed my computer back!
Computers are pretty great. I throw VMs around like they are candy, now. What an embarrassment of riches we have with modern tech! Side note: I remember the first time I got two computers to talk and how exciting that was. And just the other day, a post about 25GbPS networking (not me, Jeff Geerling).
My first desktop linux box was a PowerMac 8100/80 with MkLinux, probably sometime in 1996. At launch it didn't have support for multi-button mice, which made X11 kind of hard to use (center-button was the only way to paste text in many cases back then), as Apple only shipped a one button mouse by default so that was all that was supported.
As an impertinent high schooler, I emailed Logitech asking for one of their 3 button ADB trackballs, saying I was going to add 3 button support to MkLinux. They actually replied and sent me one. I managed to come up with some code that kind of worked, and sent off a patch, but by that time I think someone else fixed the multibutton mouse issue before me.
Good times back then. It was such a step up in terms of multitasking, and a step back in terms of UI consistency from classic MacOS.
When I went off to university a year later, Apple wasn't doing so hot so, so I built myself a Pentium Pro machine. Prices on those parts went through the floor as the Pentium II had come out, and Linux was all 32 bit so no 16 bit perf issues the PPro was known for. Dual CPU board (single CPU at first) and as another processor and memory upgrades getting cheaper it was a nice machine through all of college.
Then after graduation I got a job after MacOS X came out, and jumped back to Apple products as they were the only game for unix on a laptop with power management that didn't suck in the early 2000's.
Good times.
This was the first linux that I ran on a Powermac 6500 for years since I was never a fan of MacOS 8 or 9. There were some compatibility issues and bugs, but it was a nice alternative to MacOS before the PowerPC linux distros came about.
16697 word count, higher than Steve Yegge or Kalzumeus! Printed in a 6”x9” book, it would be 66 pages, without images.
Some teenagers saved up money for a car. I saved up money for a PowerMac 7100. It cost me $3k, with a solid student discount.
I used it throughout college and beyond. I upgraded the RAM, the L2 cache. I even added one of the Sonnet G3 cards the article shows.
During its latter years, it only ran MkLinux.
At an early start up I worked for, we had a bunch of PowerPC Mac pizza boxes running System 7. The experience was terrible, they crashed or locked up constantly.
I eventually took a few of them and installed MkLinux and they were rock-solid workhorses for years after, doing things like light file serving, Usenet proxy and a firewall.
I worked at an early ISP with a web development department. A couple of the guys had Macs with System 7.x. The things would lock up or crash on a daily basis and require near daily reboots. Some of that early software, especially Netscape Navigator, was incredibly unstable. Fortunately, we had Sun Sparc and SGI boxes for the servers.
> We got the musical sting! <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui1ygMZWdKE> (These Power Macs do not make a Mac "bong.")
I love this one (my PowerMac 7100 back in the day had the same) because it's ‘totally not A Hard Day's Night’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b-awuNzko4
> This particular machine, codenamed "Zephyr," had an arresting crimson prototype board complete with populated debug header, additional test points and a silkscreened train logo. <https://old.reddit.com/r/VintageApple/comments/8pcwux/oddbal...>
Not just any train; that's the California Zephyr! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Zephyr_(1949%E2%80%...
My photo of the same EMD FP7 locomotive <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Pacific_805-A> as the Wikipedia header image, at the Western Pacific RR Museum in Portola California: https://i.ibb.co/Kzzs3gT4/WP-805A.jpg (taken in 2022 with Olympus PEN-F + Sigma 56mm prime)
The first non-MacOS OS I ever booted was MkLinux. On a PowerPC 9500. I convinced my mom to drive to a Borders book store to get a book about it. There were no books about Linux at that location in whatever part of the 90s. It booted to a CLI and I had no idea what to do. I didn’t have a second computer to look up commands (as though I’d have the vocabulary to find enough info on a dialup connection to restore usability same-day). I think I reinstalled MacOS 8 or 9 same evening. I needed my computer back!
Computers are pretty great. I throw VMs around like they are candy, now. What an embarrassment of riches we have with modern tech! Side note: I remember the first time I got two computers to talk and how exciting that was. And just the other day, a post about 25GbPS networking (not me, Jeff Geerling).
Apologies for typos. Just woke.
Edit: clarification about 25