Crux aims to be a light-weight Linux distribution. As you can read on their official website the developers focus on the "keep it simple" doctrine, including just the basics in the disribution and "glueing" the packages with some simple bsd-styled init scripts and a an easy-to-use ports system/package manager.
Crux PPC is relatively new. Its project was started by Giulivo, an Italian student: he was the one that started the port of this distribution that was strictly tied to the x86 platform before.

Version 2.0 rc3 (that's what we're testing), is coming out months after the 2.0 release for the x86 architecture and should be ready to run just well on NewWorld Apple machines and Pegasus II boxes (this is the first version supporting them). Apple 64 bits environments are supported too. Thanks to hardware donations support for PowerPC rs6000 machines might come anytime (soon or later?). We tested it on a Quicksilver G4 PowerMac.

This release candidate ships with a 2.6.7 kernel, which seems to support just fine new G5 machines from Apple (including the "mighty" fan controlling feature) and many useful features for PowerBook and iBook owner (read: power mangement, Tv Out). Clearly we still have no feedback about newest G5 and the new nVidia super GPU. And for iMac G5 too!!! We think in few weeks everything will be ok with these new Apple products too.

Booting

I first had some problems booting: for some reason starting the box and pressing the C button to boot from cd was not working. Pressing the alt button to take the graphical screen and select the linux cd as boot device was not working neither. At last I just opened my case and put the cd device from slave to master. That solved the problem. Well, i did not mention that taking the Open Firmware console and forcing the boot from the considered atapi device was not working too. Weird, but solved.

As said, "keep it easy". But people expecting for a graphic installer won't find what they're looking for. I'm soon welcomed by a login prompt, i login as root, no password asked, and i have a shell in front of me.

Installation is not easy for new users, as said, but a small handbook gives you step-by-step guide thru the entire process. So don't be scared, it could be a nice way to approach some basics of the shell and learn generic installation steps that can be just useful to most people.

My suggestion is to use a console to do the installation steps and another one (you take it with alt-ctrl-f2, alt-ctrl-f3 and so on) to read the Crux handbook.

First step is clearly the partition setup. This is something that new Linux users will hate: you have to use mac-fdisk to partition.

Partitioning requests a bit of care. So don't be in a hurry. You will need a bootstrap partition (the ones that will host the taboot bootloader files, the ones will make crux bootable on a mac), a swap partition and a root one (at least, we tested in this way). the crux handbook suggests, and it is our suggestion too, to create at least a separate partition to mount as /home.

I then made the filesystems on the partitions: in my case i have hda10 as bootstrap, hda11 as swap and hda12 as root.
I did a mkswap on hda11 and a mkreiserfs o hda12.

At this point i mounted the partition as told in the handbook included in the install file and then started the setup.

The setup
The setup is really fast and minimal. A ncurses interface where you choose all the packages to install. I installed them all, as i want to test the complete install (though minimal comared to other distros, "keep it easy" philosophy is evidence in this case).
Once packages are installed you get to the shell once again.
To have a working disto you will have to compile the shipped kernel (2.6.7 for this rc3): you can configure your kernel or take one of the .config files included. there is one for 32 bit environments and one for Apple64. We used the default 32 bit .config and started compiling.

The useful handbook will guide Linux novice to the compilation steps, so have fun and don't worry :)

I then went to configure some files: the fstab and the yaboot.conf. the latter must be configured with all the informations about partition numbers used and the kernel file now compiled. I had a problem with the mkofboot and ybin commands, so when i reboot my mac just didn't set in nvram the new bootstrap partition. This means that at the reboot i did not get the yaboot prompt but everything was just as always booting into Mac OS X (yes, i am on a dual boot machine). I solved the problem getting the Open Firmware console at boot and typing:

boot hd:10,\\yaboot

This will tell my mac to bootstrap from partition number 10 (my bootstrap partition) loading yaboot file. Attention hd: is a link to my master hard disk device, so in case you're in trouble remember to look for the right device first.

First boot

Finally first boot!!
I login as root and then load some kernel modules: sungem for my Gigabit ethernet card and ehci for usb controller. I setu my connection with adsl-setup and start it with adsl-start. All smooth and useful tools are all at the right place.
I have practically already all i need: editors, compilers...and the Xserver from the X.org branch! Configuring it takes two minutes using the text-based xorgconfig utility. I am ready to go, startx and i have the old twm on my desktop. I start firefox, the response time seems just fine, the box screams and this distribution seems really good to me.

The package system includes some simple utilities (pkgadd, pkgmk, pkgrm) to install remove and make pakages or just get info on already installed packages.
the sweet thing is the port system used in combination with the pkgmk program. You want FreeBSD-like ports? Here they are, in practice.
I upgrade some configuration file, as explained on the crux-ppc site and then i start updating the ports base with a ports -u.
I'm a debian lover, i admit it, so first impact with a package system that seems so minimal compared to the debian one could be shocking. In practice that was not shocking or bad at all, it was just fine cause it works just fine and it's clean, easy to understand, but, on the other hand, is clearly less powerful than the debian "monster".

So, in few minutes, i ahve a slick installation and i compile and install automatically windowmaker: i just go to its port direstory in /usr/ports/opt/windowmaker and then type pkgmk -d -i. Just the time to download sources and compile them. Windowmkar is on my screen...yes, but that's because it was already included in the Crux base :)

I repeat my test first eliminating the xchat package and then installing it again with the ports mechanism and everything is fine.

And everything is very responsive and clean. Clearly, that's because we're just running not cpu and gpu intensive environments, as kde can be, but my impression is that this Crux is very well fine tuned and, most important, is very open and clear to understand to your own tuning.

I like it and i can only suggest you at least a try.