getting a free G5, do any modern apps run on the PowerPC?

[minmaster]

someone is giving me an old dual 2ghz G5, i know apple has moved onto intel chips and many of the new softwares run on intel only, so what kind of modern software can i expect to run on the G5 PowerPC? will any recent games run on it? around when did software makers drop PowerPC support so i can get just look for software before then.

 

[VinylxScratches]

I'd just get a *nix flavor on it.

 

[Nothinman]

Yea, you'll have much better luck with a PPC port of Linux since they're actually still maintained.

 

[Emulex]

when snow leopard came out.

 

[minmaster]

so it will be pretty useless i gather.
i have some mac software from the classic os9 days but i dont think they'll run on the G5 dual.

 

[Ka0t1x]

Lots of stuff still works fine. You just need to see if says Universal Binary.

 

[Patranus]

Lots of stuff still works fine. You just need to see if says Universal Binary.

Seriously.

I don't understand why people insist that something like a G5 or Leopard is worthless.

 

[ViRGE]

At this point most software is still Universal, so you should be able to find the software you need - even if it's not, the most you'd have to go back is usually a version. Games will be the odd man out though, as relatively few games were ported to PPC versus x86; so you'd be looking at games 4+ years old.

Seriously.

I don't understand why people insist that something like a G5 or Leopard is worthless.

To be fair, Apple's traditional policy for software support is a current OS + 1 policy. Since Lion is due this summer, Leopard support will be ending within 6 months or so. So while it's not worthless, if you want to keep connected to the internet it's of time-limited value.

 

[Nothinman]

so it will be pretty useless i gather.
i have some mac software from the classic os9 days but i dont think they'll run on the G5 dual.

Hardly. Linux and virtually all open source software should run great on that thing.