Linux Server on a Mac?

[Upchurch]

I have an old iMac G3 sitting in the closet that is in otherwise good condition. Otherwise the house is filled with Windows XP machines.

I would love to try to convert the Mac into a house server that I could use for various nefarious purposes, but I know next to nothing about Macs and about as much about the only free server software that I'm aware of, Linux.

Is this an oil and water situation or do I have a possibility of making this work? If so, how?

[tsg]

YellowDog, Suse and Mandrake are all supposed to have PPC versions. I have no experience with any of those distributions, but from what I understand, the G3 might be a little light on hardware to do anything useful with them. There is a version of Slackware called Slackintosh that is supposed to work on PPC. Slackware works very well on older hardware if you don't need X. I have several servers in the office running Slackware with no GUI.

[Nick Bogaerts]

Most Linux distros have PPC support, so it being a Mac is not an issue. My personal favourite OSes for servers are the Debian (www.debian.org) Linux distribution for conveniance, and OpenBSD (www.openbsd.org) when security is the predominant factor, though I'll freely admit these are more a question of taste than technical superiority.

When you say you want a server, what do you intend to use it for (Web server? Network Accessible Storage?) You might get more specific advice if we have a better idea of your needs.

[Kestrel]

If the iMac G3 has OS X, it already is a Unix server. You might not need to load a new OS, just find a port of the server apps you want to install.

[Upchurch]

If the iMac G3 has OS X, it already is a Unix server.
Unfortunately, it is not.

Thanks for the responses.

[chipotle]

I'm a big fan of Mac recycling but a System 9 machine is suitable only for running old educational programs and games. And a G3 is not really worth fiddling with. There will be more power on the BSD system on a high end wireless router. Give it away. Unless of course you have plans to acquire a little kid.

Kestrel is right that if you have an OSX machine they are BSD based and you can set up the same services you can on a Linix box.

[tsg]

I'm a big fan of Mac recycling but a System 9 machine is suitable only for running old educational programs and games. And a G3 is not really worth fiddling with. There will be more power on the BSD system on a high end wireless router. Give it away. Unless of course you have plans to acquire a little kid.

Kestrel is right that if you have an OSX machine they are BSD based and you can set up the same services you can on a Linix box.

One of the nice things about Slackware (and, I'm assuming, Slackintosh) is that you can strip it down to the bare essentials. I've revived much destined-for-the-dumpster hardware that way.

[Nick Bogaerts]

One of the nice things about Slackware (and, I'm assuming, Slackintosh) is that you can strip it down to the bare essentials. I've revived much destined-for-the-dumpster hardware that way.

And you learn something that way, though it is more work.

[tsg]

And you learn something that way, though it is more work.

Learning something is almost always more work. But in the end you have a system that does what you want it to do, and know what to do when it doesn't.