macosx: linux on macs

Suzy Sunshine (

jillyjellyroll) wrote in

macosx,
@ 2009-01-07 17:15:00

linux on macs
For those of you who have installed some flavor of linux on your mac, do you find yourself using that installation more often than os x? Why? What are the pros/cons?

[Background info: I am debating installing Gentoo on my macbook, and I'm just wondering if I would ever use it, or if I would just find myself sticking with os x all the time. I've also got two other machines, one which is a full-time gentoo box, and the other is an older powermac running 10.4]

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	cookiefromhell 2009-01-07 10:24 pm UTC (link)
	I just use it to dick around. I can't think of any legit reason to run it over Mac OSX. I can only bring myself to put it on VMware. Might throw it (Gentoo) on my Dell laptop, though. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	jillyjellyroll 2009-01-07 10:35 pm UTC (link)
	That's what I'm trying to figure out - is there a legit reason to be running linux on a mac? The only one I can come up with is that I hate having to actively copy/paste; I want copy upon text selection! Which is a lame reason and likely remedied by software. Your pidgin icon scares me greatly. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	cookiefromhell 2009-01-07 10:38 pm UTC (link)
	They're both UNIX based and so on, so I mean, you can do a lot of the same stuff for personal use. The only reason I could think of using Linux over it is for like a server or something. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	jillyjellyroll 2009-01-07 10:41 pm UTC (link)
	Yeah if I needed another server I would not hesitate to put *nix on it over OS X. But this is my school laptop, so all personal use. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	cookiefromhell 2009-01-07 10:43 pm UTC (link)
	eh, i'd just dual boot cuz i enjoy messin around with it. i'm pretty close to slapping windows on this damn thing because the driver issues and crap is really pissing me off for WoW. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	jillyjellyroll 2009-01-07 10:48 pm UTC (link)
	Yeah I wonder about the wireless card driver issues. I really don't want to have to futz with ndiswrapper. But I keep thinking it would be cute to have Gentoo running on my mac; last year I ran gentoo on my dell laptop and everyone would look over my shoulder in class to see what I was doing and ask about it. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	beelsebob 2009-01-08 09:31 am UTC (link)
	Of note, OS X is *nix – it's UNIX in fact. Bob (Reply to this) (Parent)

	decibel45 2009-01-09 06:01 am UTC (link)
	Except linux isn't unix. ;P (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	cookiefromhell 2009-01-09 06:32 am UTC (link)
	It's unix-like - it's made to work the same, but it's not descended from a true UNIX operating system (Reply to this) (Parent)

beelsebob
2009-01-07 10:32 pm UTC (link)

I use both linux and OS X a significant amount. For general use (and even most exceptional use) there really is no reason to use Linux. Both of them are unix based OSes, but OS X is more standards compliant (as indicated by being UNIX certified). Both of them will run shit tons of open source software, only difference is that Mac OS will also run a load of OS X software.

So yeh, basically, no reason to install a linux distro at all.

Bob

(Reply to this)

qob
2009-01-07 10:35 pm UTC (link)

Not really an answer to your question... But! I used Macs for 20 years until my Pismo (running 10.4) died last year. I couldn't afford a new Mac, so I built a Desktop and installed Klikit (a Ubuntu variant, very friendly) I would reccommend it for someone wanting to dabble with Linux. It's probably the friendliest version, and has a very helpful user forum. The only think I miss is iTunes, it doesn't run well at all. here's a link

http://www.klikit-linux.com/

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	jillyjellyroll 2009-01-07 10:39 pm UTC (link)
	Thanks for the reply. I'm not looking to "dabble with Linux"--I'm pretty well-versed with *nix and BSD. It's just, I look at my cute mac and I think, OS X is great; Gentoo is so much fun too. Is it worth putting Gentoo on my Mac if I will never use it? (Reply to this) (Parent)

	fridgemagnet 2009-01-07 10:38 pm UTC (link)
	I messed about with Yellow Dog and Gentoo and a few others on my old iBook, but they were always inferior to OS X when actually _using_ them. Hardware support wasn't as good, as you'd expect, and it was a pain to get things running in the first place. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	jillyjellyroll 2009-01-07 10:40 pm UTC (link)
	You raise a good point. I had Yellow Dog on my older powermac and it was just silly to have. Never actually used it. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	equiraptor 2009-01-07 11:00 pm UTC (link)
	I ran Gentoo on my PCs. No desire to install it on my Macs. I still use Linux at work, but I can do all the *nixy stuff I want on OS X, so... Meh. Not worth the effort or the lack of compatibility with OS X softawre, for me. We actually have some OS X servers. And some FBSD (on normal x86) servers. And they play nicely together. (Reply to this)

	wibbble 2009-01-07 11:09 pm UTC (link)
	Back before Mac OS X, I did use YDL on a PowerMac G3, but with Mac OS X I've just not had any need to. Mac OS X is the best of both worlds, you get all the *nix goodness and Photoshop. (Reply to this)

	syerbouti 2009-01-08 12:48 am UTC (link)
	Yeah, I work with Mac OS X primarily and CentOS to a small degree...I would say unless there are major things from Linux that you will really miss (and can't find an OS X equivalent anywhere), stick with OS X. (Reply to this)

tkh16
2009-01-08 04:15 am UTC (link)

I run Gentoo on a 12-inch PowerBook G4, along with Mac OS X, and I definitely use Mac OS X more (if you don't count all the time compiling stuff in Gentoo). However, I definitely do use Gentoo on it for various random purposes, including demoing stuff to classmates, making my battery last longer (see below), and running certain work and school related software which doesn't work as well (or at all) on Mac OS X. I also like having it since I can't use VMware on a PowerBook, and emulation software like VirtualPC doesn't work well enough for Linux (especially since it's way too slow)...having to reboot is better than nothing at all!

I can't speak for the MacBook, but Gentoo works a lot better than I expected on my PowerBook. It took a little bit of work to get the wifi working, but now it works fine, and other than a temporary ALSA problem the only other real problem is that Gnome Power Manager doesn't know my battery status (even though I can poll it manually from /proc/pmu)...that's actually a benefit at the moment because my current battery has a glitch where it suddenly decides it has no charge left somewhere around the 50% mark (i.e. it jumps from 50% to 0%) and tells the machine to go to sleep, even though there is still charge. When in Gentoo without power management support, I can keep running the laptop for at least an hour after the battery reaches 0% charge...(c;=

(Reply to this)

ninjarat
2009-01-08 10:54 pm UTC (link)

I'm a Unix admin by trade and calling. I've been using Linux, on desktops and portables for something like 15 years. I've written Linux on Laptop How-To documents.

OS X is the best Unix desktop out there. Period. Barring some specific reason for running Linux instead of OS X there is no reason to do so.

I *do* have Linux running on one of my G4 minis. That machine is a server: DNS, SSH, file server, a few others. It doesn't need a desktop. For that, Linux (or BSD for that matter) is a good choice of OS. Lower memory footprint.

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