If you are looking to extend the life of your G4 or G5 PowerPC machine, open source software is a valuable tool for interesting software packages that can provide better security and breath some life into our aging computers.

Power Mac G5 Best Apps App

One of the Linux variants that is available for PowerPC Macs is Lubuntu-Remix.

You won’t find this one on the official Lubuntu pages, because it is maintained by “wicknix” over on the MacRumors forum. He provides a few different versions, including one that is based off of Ubuntu 16 and works better on G5s. The one I have been utilizing to test some things out is MacBuntu, based off of Ubuntu 12 but with some newer software packages and more modern web browser options. Oh, and a shiny little bit of Mac friendliness like a faux Dock.

For answers to all your Power Mac G5 questions, see the Power Macintosh G5 Q&A. Also see: Currently Shipping Macs & Ultimate Mac Comparison. Click the triangle to the left of a system to open 'Quick Specs' - identifiers and basic configuration details - and click on the name or image for complete specifications. Apple's new relationship with Intel looms heavily over the Apple Power Mac G5 Quad, but if you need an Apple-based content-creation platform right now, this system and its pair of dual-core CPUs.

As you can see from the screenshot, MacBuntu is functional and provides some nice software options right out of the box (including ArcticFox pictured above). You will need to pay attention to your boot options, as Linux on PowerPC machines often requires making some adjustments to the boot string to make the GPUs function correctly. Without doing so, the system will likely lock up. There are helpful guides in the thread, and wicknix does a great job answering questions from newbies.

In the screenshot above, I am running MacBuntu on an old Mac mini G4. It doesn’t take too long to boot into the desktop, and it is decently responsive. You can browse the web, although webpages are fairly slow to load. Using terminal is of course nice. I also enable a vnc server, so I can remotely log in and tinker with it a bit. Ultimately, it works, and it’s something nice to mess with on a machine that is old and is limited to 1GB of RAM. Keep all that in mind as you tinker with it.

The other challenge is figuring out ways to load the OS in the first place since using a CD/DVD is likely the friendliest solution, but in my case and many others, the old slot loading CD/DVD drives in these PowerPC machines have reached the end of their life. I ended up just pulling mine out, so I was able to get the G4 to boot off a flash drive. It took some trial and error though.

I won’t say that it is as pleasant to use or speedy as a Leopard or Tiger install. It certainly isn’t as fast as OS 9 (which you can install on these old G4s). But since some of the software is newer, it is a nice alternative to throw in the mix and tinker with.

My old PowerMac G5 is still up and running. The best computer of 2006 is still pretty good on 2017, mainly thanks to the guys from the browser TenFourFox. This Firefox version for PowerMac architecture is very good and keeps the G5 able to use the “modern” Internet. The same guys that did the browser now present TenFourFoxBox, which lets you create “Apps” based on Web sites. Now you can have a FaceBook or Telegram App on your PowerMac. It is not really Apps on G5 but it is the closest you can get.

Follow this tutorial to see how you can easily create these Web Apps.

Power Mac G5 Best Apps Review

Step 1 – Download TenFourFoxBox here. (Click on “download TenFourFoxBox” at the bottom of the page)

Step2 – Unpack and mount Dmg file, then run TenFourFoxBox. (You can do it straight from the mounted drive)

Step3 – Click on “choose” button and type the App name you want to create, in this example we created a “Messenger.app”. Then type the Url of the Web app you want to create, on this example we typed “https://www.messenger.com”. You need to include the http:// or https://. At the bottom type the Title of the app which will appear on the window, for example, we typed “Messenger”. To finish click ” Create”.

Step 4 – Now you will have a Messenger App. But with a very ugly icon saying FoxBox. So let’s change it.Right-click and then click on Show Package Contents.

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Step 5 – Got to Contents->Resources and find the “fox box.icns”, and then delete it. Hold this folder open, we are going to use it soon.

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Step 6 – Find yourself an icon for your app. It needs to be on .icns extension. We found ours at iconsArchive.com, by searching and selection Download ICNS. You can also look for some online converters and convert a png file to .icns.

Step 7 – Rename the downloaded icon to “firebox.icns” and place on your opened window, the one that you deleted the .icns file before.

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Step 8 – Now you will have your Messenger.app ready to use.

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Create this and many others “Apps” using this tutorial and TenFourFoxBox, I already have Messenger, Telegram and Youtube apps on my PowerMac G5 and I love it… Please leave a comment on what do you think about these “Apps”.