Ppc64 on Apfel hammer

Another Webbrowser for Mac OS X 10.5 PPC - BrassMonkey

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Browser is called BrassMonkey and is a fork of legendary Wicknix’s SeaLion from Linux. The version we are talking about is from Nov 2025 but was only available for Intel Mac 10.6 and got now his way to 10.5 PPC. It is also based on the modern UXP Engine like Powerfox (Link) is, and has a new updated code for even better compatibility with logging into websites. It also doesn’t have a JIT Compiler, so script heavy sites will be very slow. But it is written that people on the MacRumours Forums are currently in the process of porting a JIT to Powerfox. Maybe it will also be available for BrassMonkey.

T2/Linux 26.3 “Desktop Edition”

Sun, 08 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Embedded Engineering Meets Cross-Architecture Desktop Ambition

T2/Linux has released version 26.3 “Desktop Edition,” marking a significant milestone in delivering a modern, cross-architecture desktop experience.

The distribution distinguishes itself by providing a fully reproducible KDE Plasma Wayland session across nine different CPU architectures, including x86, ARM64, PowerPC, and RISC-V. This achievement is built on T2’s long-standing foundation as a system development environment engineered for strict cross-compilation, architectural correctness, and deterministic builds.

PowerFox - A modern browser for PowerPC Macs (Mac OS X 10.5)

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I just stumbled across a new browser that promises to bring a current version of Firefox to Mac OS X 10.5 PowerPC (and Intel).

Attentive readers of my weblog will know that I have a great passion for trying out modern browsers, usually paired with modern Linux PPC distributions, on my PowerPC 64-Bit PowerMac G5 and integrating them into my daily routine. Of course, this is only possible to a limited extent with a computer from 2005, but it is possible.

New Firefox 145 and the 32 Bit Build

Tue, 11 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Master hacker René Rebe, known to everyone for T2/SDE Linux, writes in a recent article about the media’s proclamation of the end of 32-bit Firefox—and verifies this claim on his own system.

Of course, the world isn’t black and white, and René describes how, although…

while Mozilla has ended official 32-bit Linux builds for the upstream binary release, but the underlying source code remains portable. Downstream projects such as T2 SDE Linux, which pride themselves on building Firefox natively for every architecture from i686 and PowerPC G5 to MIPS and RISC-V, already have fresh 32-bit builds running. In fact, the broader ecosystem of independent distributions continues to demonstrate that so-called “obsolete” architectures can live long, productive lives when supported by efficient cross-compilation frameworks.

Compiling Classic Thunderbird Client Epyrus for PPC64 [UPDATE 3] - It works!

Sat, 08 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Long time ago I found out that someone started a project for Classic Thunderbird, because they were not really happy about the newly established way it goes from then. And on PowerPC based Linux, actual Thunderbird will not build because

Warnung: Kann "libicui18n.so=74-64" nicht auflösen (eine Abhängigkeit von "thunderbird")

libiciu cannot be built. There are some alternatives like Claws-Mail but this is really old, feels really old. It works but it is not in the actual repo of Power ARCH but you can compile it easy by yourself. Anyways. Because Epyrus is based on older classic Thunderbird, there is a change I can compile it on actual Arch with Python 2.7. I give it a try.

Long time not seen...

Thu, 06 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Dear friends of PowerPC Linux, Unix and especially the Powermac G5, I’ve not written since quite a time. The reason was my other Webproject [¹] which I managed to melt with another Website and beside that, move it into a Docker Container and run it and adopt everything and so on and on and on… you know - from stick to wood like someone says. :-)

But what I want to say is that I am using Arch POWER ppc64 Linux now for quite some time every day and while I am listening to Navidrome streamed MP3 [²] in my TerminalDrome Client or do some Webstuff with Firefox or sending Mails via Calws-Mail, I am absolutely happy and it never crashed or something like that. It works so well.

ArchPOWER Linux for PPC64(/32)

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My bigfat Powermac G5 Workstation running ArchPOWER 64 while compiling Claws-Mail under XCFE and running TerminalDrome

Because of a friendly comment by Powerlinux user Matias, I am willing to try out ArchPOWER Linux for PPC (Link) again. ArchPOWER is an unofficial Port of ARCH Linux for the PowerPC Architecture: It supports: powerpc64le (>=POWER8), powerpc (>=604), powerpc64 (>=POWER4+/G5 & PS3) and espresso (WiiU SMP).

Claws-Mail 4.3.1 ArchPOWER Linux successfully compiled for PPC64

Sat, 11 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Due to the lack of a good graphical email client ¹ for my Arch POWER Linux Distro (Arch Linux for PowerPC), I tried several things and ended up with claws-mail. But it is not installable or not existing in the repos of pacman for powerpc. So I dcided to compile it by myself.

Claws-Mail 4.3.1 just compiled successfully on my Powermac G5.

claws-mail first window, first start

Fienix Linux for PPC Computers

Sat, 11 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The other day I stumbled across Fienix Linux. It is a Distribution maintained by one man, Casey Cullen. It is based on debian, but with focus on powerpc first. I just tried to install it on my Powermac G5. And it works great!

Fienix Linux 6.0.1 on my Powermac G5, on real Hardware.

My Setup in this machine as follows:

Fienix Linux seems to be dead

Sat, 11 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I find it quite sad because I only recently got to know Fienix Linux, even though it has been around for a long time. And I think it’s absolutely great because it works better than any other Linux on the Powermac G5 that I’ve tried so far:

Graphics acceleration
modern web browser

But unfortunately the package sources are dead, this Linux is based on Debian SID and uses APT. The Fienix source server is unreachable and there is no alternative.

Firefox 128-ESR on PPC64 Powermac G5

Sat, 11 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Since I own the Powermac G5 and play around with it, I want to install a modern Browser and therefor, I want to run Firefox on it. But it is not possible. I tried different Linux Distros like Debian 12 PPC64, T2/Linux by Rene Rebe and even some special builts of ARCH for PPC64 - but I had no luck. No one had luck and even the Debian Mailinglist said it is not possible to built Firefox for PPC64 at this time. I even wrote about that.

New Release of TerminalDrome on Github

Sat, 11 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Since I recently discovered how relaxing programming can be, I’ve been tinkering with my Navidrome-compatible terminal client called TerminalDrome almost every day.

I’ve now integrated a new feature, which I’ve moved to Main:

A simple search function:

Press slash / and the search will open.
Enter the search term, press Enter, and you’ll see the search results in the right panel.
It’s neither alphabetically sorted nor otherwise organized.
Additionally, there’s a feature in the leftmost panel where you can jump directly to the beginning of the respective artist by pressing a letter of your choice. So if I press D, I’ll land on D.A.F., or Q on Queens Of The Stone Age—you get it?

My TerminalDrome CLient in Search Mode

Release: T2 Linux 25.4 'It Only Does Everything'

Sat, 11 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A lot of crazy things happen right now. A few minutes ago I reported about the living sign of Fienix Linux after the APT Repo down and now I see there is a new version of latest and greatest T2 Linux (ver. 25.4) from Rene Rebe.

With a total of 17 pre-compiled base install ISOs for various Glibc, Musl and uClibc combinations are available for 12 CPU ISAs: Alpha, ARM(64), HPPA64, IA64, MIPS64, PowerPC(64), RISCV64, SPARC64, i586, x86-64. On most architectures the release still boots with as little as 512MB of RAM or even less, and ISO downloads are less than 2GB for base Wayland desktop with Firefox.

T2 Linux is fucking amazing

Sat, 11 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

So yesterday I found out that with the PPC64 Version Firefox is working and this is a dealbreaker, a gamechanger. Because of a modern Browser, you can use this old computer nearly productive. I can webmail (even Googlemail), I can spotify, I can Youtube. I can do a lot of modern things only because the browser is working.

My Powermac G5 Desktop with XFCE 4 and some Terminal Windows.

T2/Linux 25.10 'Never Obsolete' is there - It runs Firefox 143.0.1 on PowerPC

Sat, 11 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Master-Hacker René Rebe has published his newest version of T2/Linux, an SDE Linux with the most CPU Architechture support in the world. It is also the most active and most actual Linux Distro as you can see on distro watch and other sites.

I installed this new version on my Powermac G5 Workstation and it works like charme.

Here you can find the direct download for ppc, ppc64 or ppc64/32*

I installed the 64/32 Bit Variante, because it is optimized for the 970 Processor which works in the Powermac G5.

TerminalDrome 0.2.0 is available

Sat, 11 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I am proud to announce the release of TerminalDrome 0.2.0 as a feature-rich stable version to the public. It is still alpha but it works on a daily basis here on my Powermac G5 or the Mac Mini M4.

TerminalDrome Splash Screen

There are compiled binaries available for arm64, ppc64 and armhf. But TerminalDrome will build on every Linux with Rust and Cargo.

TerminalDrome is evolving

Sat, 11 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My little Terminal Navidrome Project TerminalDrome is evolving and works a little bit better from day to day. So, what is working?

safes the state of the panes to come back later
in pane 4 it shows the elapsed time and a small bar is going to 100%
it plays the songs of an album from 1 to last

What does not work:

it won’t changes the now playing bar when a new song is playing

This is a screenshot of my real Powermac G5 running TerminalDrome in the wild.

TermNavi is renamed in TerminalDrome

Sat, 11 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Because there’s already a Terminal Navidrome client called NaviTerm, and I don’t really like my name TermNavi, I decided to rename my software TerminalDrome. Of course, that sounds completely stupid, but at least it’s better than a copy.

I think my software will soon become famous.

Oh, and it doesn’t even work properly yet. :-)

Ressources

TerminalDrome Github Repo

TermNavi Terminal Navidrome Client ppc64

Sat, 11 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

So the other day I tried to connect to my Navidrome MP3 Streaming Server, I call it “Spotify at Home”, via Webinterface to listen to some music, but there were no way to do this. The Webbrowsers available are too old. Sad.

So I decided to programm a really small Navidrome Terminal Client called TermNavi (yes I know… need better name) to listen to my MP3. And what shall I say? The first implementation is ready. I tested and successfully compiled on aarch64 (my MacMini M4) and the legendary Powermac G5 with ARCH Linux or Debian Sid ppc64.

Update to Fienix Linux

Sat, 11 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

As I wrote in a few articles before, I am a big fan of Fienix Linux because it works absolutely amazing on my Powermac G5, it can even render complex and modern Websites like my other Weblog (Ghost CMS) and all the big and modern new Websites.

However, as I continued to use Fienix, I found out that I couldn’t install any updates or other software packages. After some research, I discovered that the Fienix APT Repo was down. I asked at the corresponding youtube channel and even at the Website, but there was no answer.

New Version 0.2.2 of TerminalDrome

Mon, 02 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I just finished the work on TerminalDrome 0.2.2 and I am really proud of it, because I don’t know nothing about Rust programming language but the Terminal NaviDrome Client is running very well :-)

TerminalDrome started, Cover Art, no artist or album chosen

Whats is new?

Implemented cover art: terminaldrome is downloading the cover art of the album if available and convert it to ASCII :-)
Album Scrolling: while in album pane, there were no scrolling implemented and when there were more than 5 albums, you would not see them.
fixed mute button
updated splash screen :-)
a lot of other improvements and fixes

What else?

Tested on:

New Kernel 6.12.5 for my Powermac G5

Mon, 16 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I plugged in that great NVMe SSD into my Powermac G5 because he supports PCI-Express (Version 1.0) and there is a 4x Speed Port that is unused (the x16 is for the Graphicscard) and now I ran a 1 TB NVMe-SSD in this Powermac and it is doing great. Because due the lack of drivers, Open Firmware is unable to boot from thos NVMe-SSDs, he is able to boot from a normal 2,5" SSD on the SATA-Port. So I installed the /boot/grub parts to that SSD and therefor it loads the Operating System from the NVMe :-) This is working quite well and I run