PowerPC Mac Mini - Conver to Chrome OS or Ubuntu

[TRICKorDEVICE]

I have an old Mac Mini - I believe it was one of the last models before they switched to intel based chips.

I want to convert it so my young kids can use it. Is it possible to convert it to Ubuntu or Chrome OS?

I thought I could do this: https://guide.neverware.com/supported-devices/ , but it isn't specifically listed as a compatible device.

Any ideas or suggestions?

 

[CUDA_Switch]

I looked into NeverWare's CloudReady project once and it looked like a nice way to reuse an old computer. But I didn't see any Minis on their certified models list, like you said. Since you just need a kid machine, by far the easiest thing would be to load the last supported OS X version (probably Leopard, which is pretty cheap on eBay or Craigslist). The big problem with that though is the browser is going to be totally unsupported. I know people have used 3rd party browsers like TenFourFox which might help a little, but using Leopard on the Internet these days is going to be a huge pain.

The other possibility is to use Everymac to get the model ID, then Google around to see what kind of Linux support is out there for it (and how much work it would be to get that going). Ubuntu and Debian have had 32-bit Power PC ports out there for a while. But my guess is that, unless you have the time and want to learn, it probably isn't worth the effort unfortunately.

 

[TRICKorDEVICE]

Thank you for taking the time to reply. I will look into the options that you presented.

 

[MysticCow]

Convert it to MorphOS. It costs, but it's the single fastest PowerPC OS there is. Even faster than 10.4 or 10.5.

http://www.morphos-team.net/

It's still being developed and the G4 minis will work right out of the box in Morph with no hardware issues.

 

[TRICKorDEVICE]

Convert it to MorphOS. It costs, but it's the single fastest PowerPC OS there is. Even faster than 10.4 or 10.5.

http://www.morphos-team.net/

It's still being developed and the G4 minis will work right out of the box in Morph with no hardware issues.

I'll look into this. Thank you