The incredible PowerPC community is at work again, conjuring up some interesting experiments to see how else our machines can be extended.
The biggest nugget that has been circulating is the discovery of early builds of Snow Leopard which included PowerPC compatibility. These images come before Apple decided to nix PowerPC code. As such, they aren’t finished builds of Snow Leopard, and the support for some hardware is sketchy. However, initial reports of those who are trying them out note that Snow Leopard runs fairly well, though graphics drivers are buggy.
I haven’t taken the plunge yet, but I am working up to it as I watch the community learn about these finds and troubleshoot how to get the system stable. For example, kexts and drivers from Leopard (10.5.8) could being copied over when missing in Snow Leopard. Other imaginative thoughts include exploring later Snow Leopard builds for PowerPC code that lingered and moving those pieces back into these pre-release disc images. A Frankenstein kind of experience.
Read the thread on MacRumors to get started: Snow Leopard on Unsupported PPC Machines
Questions that remain:
- Will this open PPC machines to some later builds of certain software? Would this potentially make some TenFourFox builds easier?
- Is this stable enough to be a daily driver, and is it truly snappy?
- What will be incompatible?
— Nathan