Can I use linux on my Mac os 10.3.9 , if so which one?

Yes, but your options are limited. Ubuntu isn't really doing PPC builds any more but I think you can still find them (not sure where). It will also have to be Xubuntu as new versions of Ubuntu have a minimum RAM requirement of 384mbs. If you could upgrade the RAM to 512 you would have more options.

Okay, did a quick google search. Here is a page with some older builds of xubuntu for ppc. Not sure if anything newer exists.

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/ports/releases/gutsy/release/

Thanks Jim.

This raises more questions. The notice in RED is scary. i do not know
what it means.

I read somewhere that old systems are not supported anymore.

So there is a gap in understanding there.

David

On 22-Oct-08, at 7:18 PM, Jim Hutchinson wrote:

> Your question #48777 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/48777
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Jim Hutchinson proposed the following answer:
> Yes, but your options are limited. Ubuntu isn't really doing PPC builds
> any more but I think you can still find them (not sure where). It will
> also have to be Xubuntu as new versions of Ubuntu have a minimum RAM
> requirement of 384mbs. If you could upgrade the RAM to 512 you would
> have more options.
>
> Okay, did a quick google search. Here is a page with some older builds
> of xubuntu for ppc. Not sure if anything newer exists.
>
> http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/ports/releases/gutsy/release/
>
> --
> If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let
> us
> know that it is solved:
> https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/48777/+confirm?
> answer_id=0
>
> If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
> following page to enter your feedback:
> https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/48777
>
> You received this question notification because you are a direct
> subscriber of the question.
>

Not really a big concern anymore. Just run the updates after install. There was a bug (forget which package maybe ssh) and was patched but those builds are from before the fix so you have to run the updates. My guess is they will be automatically downloaded the first time you run update which you will probably do right after installing and rebooting.

Thanks Jim,

I will try and down load and see what happens.

I will let you know.

David

On 22-Oct-08, at 7:49 PM, Jim Hutchinson wrote:

> Your question #48777 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/48777
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Jim Hutchinson proposed the following answer:
> Not really a big concern anymore. Just run the updates after install.
> There was a bug (forget which package maybe ssh) and was patched but
> those builds are from before the fix so you have to run the updates. My
> guess is they will be automatically downloaded the first time you run
> update which you will probably do right after installing and rebooting.
>
> --
> If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let
> us
> know that it is solved:
> https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/48777/+confirm?
> answer_id=2
>
> If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
> following page to enter your feedback:
> https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/48777
>
> You received this question notification because you are a direct
> subscriber of the question.
>

Jim or anyone who knows about this problem......

I just down loaded the linux as per link and opened it, and a window
came up saying that the disk image that I downloaded may be damaged and
may damage my computer if I continue.

BTW it also took almost three hours to down load.

What is this all about?

David

On 22-Oct-08, at 7:49 PM, Jim Hutchinson wrote:

> Your question #48777 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/48777
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Jim Hutchinson proposed the following answer:
> Not really a big concern anymore. Just run the updates after install.
> There was a bug (forget which package maybe ssh) and was patched but
> those builds are from before the fix so you have to run the updates. My
> guess is they will be automatically downloaded the first time you run
> update which you will probably do right after installing and rebooting.
>
> --
> If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let
> us
> know that it is solved:
> https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/48777/+confirm?
> answer_id=2
>
> If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
> following page to enter your feedback:
> https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/48777
>
> You received this question notification because you are a direct
> subscriber of the question.
>

How did you download (mirror or torrent)? Did you check the md5sum to make sure it's not a corrupt download? Did you burn it properly (see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto)? In general you don't open the iso. You burn it and then boot it. As for download speed that depends on a lot of things like your network speed as well as the upload speed at the source. Since Ubuntu is not really supporting PPC anymore I have no idea how those images get there and what sort of bandwidth is allocated but it may not be a lot. It's also a somewhat large file.

Jim,

I do not understand the computer terminology you use.

1. mirror or torrent
2 md5sum
3 iso
4. PPC

re your comment on down load speed, I get the general idea, anyway. The
download time is not important anyway. It was just a comment, as I
read that the load time was only 25 minutes or so. But I get the point.
  That was probably referring to the new ones, anyway.

David

On 23-Oct-08, at 12:49 AM, Jim Hutchinson wrote:

> Your question #48777 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/48777
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Jim Hutchinson proposed the following answer:
> How did you download (mirror or torrent)? Did you check the md5sum to
> make sure it's not a corrupt download? Did you burn it properly (see
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto)? In general you
> don't
> open the iso. You burn it and then boot it. As for download speed that
> depends on a lot of things like your network speed as well as the
> upload
> speed at the source. Since Ubuntu is not really supporting PPC anymore
> I
> have no idea how those images get there and what sort of bandwidth is
> allocated but it may not be a lot. It's also a somewhat large file.
>
> --
> If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let
> us
> know that it is solved:
> https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/48777/+confirm?
> answer_id=5
>
> If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
> following page to enter your feedback:
> https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/48777
>
> You received this question notification because you are a direct
> subscriber of the question.
>

The file you download is an image of a CD. To install Ubuntu you have to burn the image onto a real blank CD with a proper burning tool. Make sure you don’t just put the .iso file onto the CD. You have to use the function called "Burn Image to CD" or similar. This is something like unzipping a zip file (but onto a blank CD).
MD5 sum is a magic number that you can compute to check if the ISO image has been downloaded correctly. You need a little tool for this. The number the tool computes has to match the number you can find where you downloaded the ISO file.

When you’ve burned the CD you have to boot from it.

Thanks for your detailed reply. It is appreciated.

But your answer is still above my understanding,

although, I will see if i can figure it out.

You seem to be quite familiar with this stuff.

The other question I have is:

The only reason I was looking for another system is that on my Mac,
OS 10.3.9 word processor, I seem to be able to only use Claris or
Apple works 6 format for saving word documents. Then when I want to
send them to someone, via attachment, they cannot open them. I guess
they are using windows or something other than Apple.

Also when friends send me attachments, if it is something other than
old fashioned pdf I cannot open it.
and there seems to be always some new format coming along, which i
cannot open. Do I have that right?

My question is; will the Linux system that I am trying to down load,
have common word document formats that I can use, and be able to open
other types of formats that my friends send to me?

On 23-Oct-08, at 1:33 PM, Tobias Wolf wrote:

> Your question #48777 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/48777
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Tobias Wolf proposed the following answer:
> The file you download is an image of a CD. To install Ubuntu you have
> to burn the image onto a real blank CD with a proper burning tool.
> Make sure you don’t just put the .iso file onto the CD. You have to
> use the function called "Burn Image to CD" or similar. This is
> something like unzipping a zip file (but onto a blank CD).
> MD5 sum is a magic number that you can compute to check if the ISO
> image has been downloaded correctly. You need a little tool for this.
> The number the tool computes has to match the number you can find
> where you downloaded the ISO file.
>
> When you’ve burned the CD you have to boot from it.
>
> --
> If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let
> us
> know that it is solved:
> https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/48777/+confirm?
> answer_id=7
>
> If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
> following page to enter your feedback:
> https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/48777
>
> You received this question notification because you are a direct
> subscriber of the question.
>

Please see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto for help on proper burning of the CD and tools you can use. It also covers checking the md5sum. You can probably skip that as most times everything downloads fine. However, if you have problems it would be good to rule out a bad download.

As for a word processor, Linux comes with Open Office and can open and save popular formats as well as the open document format (ODF) that is an open standard and can be read by many programs. You can install Open Office on a PPC mac as well. See http://www.openoffice.org/ for more info.