Many people will wonder which distribution (or distro) they should install on any computer. This is particularly true of installing it on a Mac as there are several drivers and such that tend to be included in one distribution but not another.
I've installed Ubuntu because it's the one that seemed to have the better overall support for the Linux on Mac community. This doesn't mean that you can't run Fedora, Suse, Debian or anything else. It only means that if the driver you require for the video card (for example) isn't available directly in the repository, you'll have to manually download and install it.
One of the limiting factors may be how old or new your Mac is. If it's still using a PPC chip, then you'll have to stick to one of the distributions that provides that architecture. If however you're on a new machine, you may find that not all the hardware is fully supported "out-of-the-box" and will need a lot of tweaking.
You use to have to enable a BIOS emulation (using Bootcamp) to prepare the partition where you were going to install the OS.
Now it seems you can boot off the CD and install directly.
I've preferred leaving my OS X partition after resizing, in part because Apple releases firmware updates and such that are only installable through OS X. (That I know of.)
I must admit I boot into OS X only once every month or two, having gone for 3 months without booting into Leopard.
So in the end which distribution should you use? Well that's really up to you. Every distro has it's good things and bad. It's mainly personal taste. Which distros have you installed? Have you tried more than one and what were your results? I'd like to hear from others about this.
-P
Monday 14 December 2009
Sunday 13 December 2009
Why put Linux on your Mac?
I have a separate blog that I use to keep information that I either collect while surfing, working or otherwise think that others will find interesting and informative.
While Not Just Linux is meant to be about many things, and not just about Linux, I've found that I am getting a lot of traffic from people that are interested on my posts about running Linux on the Mac.
They seem to be a quiet crowd as they so far haven't really asked any questions, but I'm sure that many of them would love to hear about the issues that I've had running Linux (in my case Ubuntu) on my MacbookPro.
I have several friends that have Macs and they tend to ask me "Why did you put Linux on your Mac?"
So I'm going to try answer this question with several points.
OS X (Tiger, Leopard and now Snow Leopard) is very stable and very nice to look at. It has come neat features including being able to have multiple desktops, running them with different backgrounds and even sticking your applications to those desktops so that you can easily split them into categories. (Say "Web", "Email", "Dev Tools" or something similar.)
The operating system itself will detect any new hardware you plug into it and configure it immediately with almost no need for drivers. Plugging in a display makes it come up and voila, your desktop is extended.
You can install BSD Ports, either MacPorts or Darwin Ports which can give you all the tools you really need from Linux by just running a simple command or using a graphical interface that uses the CLI in the background. (sudo ports install application)
The applications that are native for the Mac take advantage of the OS so that they can create PDFs by just saving the file in PDF format.
So... Why Linux?
Because I can. Because I learn from it*. Because not everything works out just out of the box*. Because I am a geek at heart and I've been using Linux for over ten years. Because I am trying to find out just how far Linux has come for the desktop**. Because it makes life just a little more insteresting. And now... Because I think I can help people who are ALSO interested in running Linux on their Mac.
So you tell me: Why are you trying to run Linux on your Mac? What are the problems you are encountering that you need help with? How can I and the Linux community help you out?
Lastly: Welcome to my blog. I hope to have entertain you, educate you and help you get things done.
--
Patrick
* Learn: I've had to read forum after forum, test things that aren't mentioned in the forums but seem to make sense in relation to what I'm doing, all in to get my machine working like I want it.
** It's come far! It's on that thing line where depending on the hardware you are running and what you are going to use your machine for you can definitely use it as a replacement and not as an "extension" you only use once in a while.
While Not Just Linux is meant to be about many things, and not just about Linux, I've found that I am getting a lot of traffic from people that are interested on my posts about running Linux on the Mac.
They seem to be a quiet crowd as they so far haven't really asked any questions, but I'm sure that many of them would love to hear about the issues that I've had running Linux (in my case Ubuntu) on my MacbookPro.
I have several friends that have Macs and they tend to ask me "Why did you put Linux on your Mac?"
So I'm going to try answer this question with several points.
OS X (Tiger, Leopard and now Snow Leopard) is very stable and very nice to look at. It has come neat features including being able to have multiple desktops, running them with different backgrounds and even sticking your applications to those desktops so that you can easily split them into categories. (Say "Web", "Email", "Dev Tools" or something similar.)
The operating system itself will detect any new hardware you plug into it and configure it immediately with almost no need for drivers. Plugging in a display makes it come up and voila, your desktop is extended.
You can install BSD Ports, either MacPorts or Darwin Ports which can give you all the tools you really need from Linux by just running a simple command or using a graphical interface that uses the CLI in the background. (sudo ports install application)
The applications that are native for the Mac take advantage of the OS so that they can create PDFs by just saving the file in PDF format.
So... Why Linux?
Because I can. Because I learn from it*. Because not everything works out just out of the box*. Because I am a geek at heart and I've been using Linux for over ten years. Because I am trying to find out just how far Linux has come for the desktop**. Because it makes life just a little more insteresting. And now... Because I think I can help people who are ALSO interested in running Linux on their Mac.
So you tell me: Why are you trying to run Linux on your Mac? What are the problems you are encountering that you need help with? How can I and the Linux community help you out?
Lastly: Welcome to my blog. I hope to have entertain you, educate you and help you get things done.
--
Patrick
* Learn: I've had to read forum after forum, test things that aren't mentioned in the forums but seem to make sense in relation to what I'm doing, all in to get my machine working like I want it.
** It's come far! It's on that thing line where depending on the hardware you are running and what you are going to use your machine for you can definitely use it as a replacement and not as an "extension" you only use once in a while.
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