Dumping Mac for Linux?

[Jack Springer]

What's your problem with OSX?

 

[T-Rexx]

How geeky should I be before dumping the Mac OS for Linux? Is Linux still like driving a car with 38 gears, a manual spark advance, a crystal radio set and rocks attached to ropes for brakes?

No. But it is like driving a car that you can customize with different engines, wheels, interiors, and even bodies. It offers you the freedom to make it what you want, or leave it the same as the day you got it. Some people are not comfortable having that kind of power in their hands.

You have to be willing to adjust to a non-rigid way of thinking about things. It doesn't work like Windows or Mac. It works better, but it still requires a willingness to learn something new. Some people don't care to be bothered with learning new things.

Linux is free. If you don't like something, you don't go back to the store and ask the genius there what else you can buy to try to get it to do what you require. You collaborate with a community of your peers to learn how other people have solved the problem, and then you decide how you want to do it. Some people don't like that.

 

[looseliam]

I would recommend playing with one in a virtual environment, or download a live cd and play around that way. I've never worked with osx, but I would imagine grub should be able to boot it.

As for your car analogy, I would liken it to a manual vs. automatic car. Sure, the automatic drives, but you actual drive the manual one. As for manual spark advance, I give you points for even knowing about it. My last encounter with it was on a ford model a.

 

[T-Rexx]

After a visit to YouTube, I found I'd have to wipe this drive, partition it and reload OS X, this time with Boot Camp. Except for loading Boot Camp, which, I presume, would simply be another box to check, I've done that a zillion times. Oh, and an EFI thingamajig, at least for Ubuntu.

I'm sorry, but I have no experience installing Linux on Macs. It seems crazy to me that you would have to wipe the drive and re-install OS X, just to add a second OS.

I'm lousy with terminal command lines. But I've written (and lifted from the web for the proper syntax, then modified) a dozen or so AppleScripts, a few of which I use daily, including a simple one to log in here.

It is likely that your Apple terminal commands would work unchanged (or possibly with slight modifications) in a Linux terminal. Both OSs are descended from Unix, of course, and share the same design features and command syntax.

It is useful to have some rudimentary understanding of terminal commands to use Linux more effectively, but it is not really necessary.

I've used Macs since System 6 was current, so stuff that I can't change, including code that I could change before OS X came along, is frustrating. That will be worse with Lion. Lion's biggest roadblock for me: There is no way to avoid the phucking dock. I loathe the dock. It's a piece of clunky crap. And I vehemently object to Lion's automatic backups of everything.

You will find Linux remarkably customizable. So much so that some people consider it a problem. There are about a dozen different desktop GUIs in common use. You can even install several different GUIs, and switch between them on the fly, without rebooting. You can add a dock or delete one you don't like. You can move the location of the taskbars, or combine taskbars together, or make them invisible. You can make windows "wobbly," have them close by exploding into flames, or make windows "stick" together when they bump up against each other. You can make your desktop look and work exactly like AmigaOS or OS/2 Warp. If it can be done on a computer, there is a way to do it in Linux.

Such plasticity drives some people crazy, of course. They want there to be just one way to do everything across every computer. But that would violate the spirit of Linux, one tenet of which is that computers should adapt to users, not users to computers. It makes Steve Jobs turn over in his grave.

I don't know Windows. The last time I used it at home was through a Windows 98 emulator running in my OS 9 Mac, and I figured it out to the extent of being comfortable with RegEdit. Later, I used Windows 2000 at a workplace, but it was nailed down so tightly no one could do anything except push those buttons allowed by the computer priests. Pull one of the priests' strings, and all their recording could say was "Virus! Virus!" They lived in fear of them, which, of course, reinforced my contempt for Windows.

So if Linux (maybe depending on the version) resembles Windows in form and function (Windows is soooooo UGLY), it might be a tough re-education slog. But what the hell. It's only esthetics.

The look and feel of Windows 7 was largely copied from the Linux KDE desktop. (The first time I saw a computer running Windows 7, I was confused. I actually thought it was a KDE desktop, ported to Windows.) Other Linux desktops can look like OS X. Most are unique solutions which someone thought better than everything else out there. There is so much variety in Linux GUIs that experience with Windows or OS X is not necessarily an advantage or disadvantage. You keep looking until you find what you like, or you customize what you have until it works the way you want it to.

Security is intrinsic to the design of Linux, but it is elegantly unobtrusive, as it is in OS X. That's not an accident, of course. Both OSs inherit their security architecture from Unix. It does not convey the feeling of being "locked down," and it is not constantly in your face, as it is in Windows. You can visit the nastiest sites on the web and open email attachments to your heart's content without worry. They can't hurt you. You don't even need an anti-virus program.

 

[andysayshi]

I dunno if there's a way to partition a drive in a Mac without losing everything on it, certainly not with with Apple's Disk Utility.

No need to wipe any drives. You can create new partitions on your OS X disk using Bootcamp, but it requires you to install Windows before you can install Linux.

Alternately, buy a VM tool like Parallels or Fusion and you can do everything from there (without having to install Windows if you don't want to) plus you have the advantage of running Linux (or Windows) in a virtual machine. I use Parallels and it's incredibly efficient. Windows apps run directly from the dock as if they were Mac apps - it's quite seamless.

If you don't wan to do any of the above, a cheap utility called iPartition will allow you to repartition any OS X drive you like as often as you like without losing a thing.

Have you emailed the developers of the software you own? They should be able to provide you with a redemption code to download your software from the Mac App Store for free.

 

[SexyGuy]

My laptop (which I'm on right now) currently dual boots Linux Mint 9.0 Isadora and Windows 7, and I have to say, I'm currently debating whether I should just completely go Mint all the way. The only reason why I have Windows 7 on this machine is for the MS Office bundle (I love MS OneNote and there is no program like it in the Freeware Universe). Also, my university's network requires one to download software in order to log in to the secure version (which I like better). Unfortunately it's only Windows...

For Linux Mint, try www.linuxmint.com , though some advice: The next LTS version will be coming out in November I think...

ALso, give this a look: http://www.junauza.com/2011/06/linux-mint-11-vs-ubuntu-1104.html

 

[bw92116]

If you don't like Lion, why don't you go back to an earlier version of OSX? I'm still at 10.3.9. My theory is that a Mac runs best with the OS that came with it from the factory.

 

[T-Rexx]

No need to wipe any drives. You can create new partitions on your OS X disk using Bootcamp, but it requires you to install Windows before you can install Linux.

In other words, you need to spend $100 to $300 to buy an OS you'll never use, before Apple will let you install a free one.