Posted on December 5, 2006 - by Justin Hartman

PowerPC canned by Ubuntu

So go figure. 15 days after installing Ubuntu on my Apple iBook G4 a decision was made today to drop future support for PowerPC. For those who don’t know PowerPC is the chip inside the “now old” Apple computers much like the Intel chips that are made for PCs and now also Apple.

I first became aware that Ubuntu were thinking about dropping PowerPC support about a week ago by reading this forum thread. There was also a petition to save PowerPC support which I signed but despite the lengthy forum pleas and signatures to save PowerPC the decision was made by the developers of Ubuntu.

My initial reaction after reading the initial forum post was mixed with sadness and anger. I replied on the forum saying:-

Really sad to read the PowerPC review as I have only recently installed Edgy on my 1.33Ghz iBook G4 PPC. The fact that PPC is supported by Ubuntu was a huge driving force in migrating over to Linux from OSX and it’s simply disappointing even the notion of discontinuing it.

If I wanted to run Ubuntu off a silly PC I would have done so but reading this now I have to seriously reconsider my options.

I’ve also managed to mess up my file system permissions and was considering a re-install but now I’m actually considering just moving fully over to Debian.

Good old Shuttleworth, being a South African like myself, was another factor why I wanted Ubuntu so bad but I say screw it. If they don’t want to support PPC then I’ll go where I am wanted.

A little harsh I agree but still it’s a decision that has tarnished my whole idea of Ubuntu. I realise full well that PowerPC make up a minuscule minority of Ubuntu users and we ultimately provide no revenue source to Canonical however it was not what I was expecting so soon after my migration. I had these grandiose plans of growing with Ubuntu but now I’m just not sure which direction to go.