hirohitosan Posted November 27, 2006 Report Share Posted November 27, 2006 Hello guys. I intend to buy a new computer. I oscillate between Apple or PC (IBM compatible). I intend to run Linux and I don't know if there are some differences in running Linux on Apple. Can someone give some advices? Thanks. [moved from Hardware by spinynorman] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoulSe Posted November 27, 2006 Report Share Posted November 27, 2006 Linux on older, PowerPC -based Apples is somewhat different. The new Apples use x86 architecture, just like PCs and so Linux is starting to become much like the PC experience for users of the new machines. The big problem Apple users have is in getting selected hardware to work on Linux, like the Airport wireless cards, iSight cameras, etc. If you google around you should be able to find which pieces of hardware work and which do not. I would say that if you use Linux as your primary operating system then getting a PC with verified hardware (for Linux compatibility) is still the way to go. However, the Apple operating system, OS X is based on BSD and also a Unix. It is very similar to Linux in some ways and has replaced Linux as my primary operating system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hirohitosan Posted November 27, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 27, 2006 Thanks for your advices. I'm planning to buy a laptop and since I'm in Japan the majority of the Jp models has features that maybe will not work in Linux. On the new MacBook Pro I saw that it works WinXP, so I was thinking that maybe also Linux will work. Anyway, thanks you for your hints. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iphitus Posted November 27, 2006 Report Share Posted November 27, 2006 As far as I know, all the important hardware in current macbooks works under linux. iSight i'm not sure of, but wireless, networking, graphics, chipset etc all work. James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted November 27, 2006 Report Share Posted November 27, 2006 As far as I know, all the important hardware in current macbooks works under linux. iSight i'm not sure of, but wireless, networking, graphics, chipset etc all work. James So far as I know this is true....so wait for others but I'd say if you intend to use OS-X :D Ive been toying with the idea myself and I pretty much think if I have a new laptop it'll be a mac... They are pretty cheap for what you get, sure you can find a budget laptop cheaper but for the same quality HP or IBM you are probably paying more... (depending how you judge)... Build quality is excellent etc. as is battery life etc. and much as I haven't used windows in years OS-X is great.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted November 27, 2006 Report Share Posted November 27, 2006 I had linux on my macbook. There is some fiddling that has to be done to get it to be bootable, but there are many guides around to help with that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldnoob Posted November 27, 2006 Report Share Posted November 27, 2006 On a mac you could also experiment with Parallels and enjoy the best of both worlds with no rebooting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hirohitosan Posted November 28, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 28, 2006 Thank you guys. In Japan the prices for Mac are quite attractive. I'll let you know when my new Mac will be feed with Linux stuff :) . So we can conclude SOLVE? There is some fiddling that has to be done to get it to be bootable I don't understand well ... it doesn't support dual boot? :unsure: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted November 28, 2006 Report Share Posted November 28, 2006 and well ... it doesn't support dual boot? :unsure:It does, but not as easily as a PC would. The problem is that the Intel-based mac's use EFI for booting instead of BIOS which is used in PC systems. Linux doesn't support this too well yet (elilo, the EFI version of lilo, isn't a great solution). I used a program called reffit to allow me to boot into Linux. You also have to install the bootloader into the partition that Linux is on, not the boot sector of the drive. Basically it works out to reffit loads, then from reffit you choose the OS, and when you choose Linux the boot loader comes up - you can just set this to boot Linux immediately, though. You have to keep an OS X partition on the mac, you can't completely replace it, just dual-boot. This article kind of describes the process, though it's for Ubuntu. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iphitus Posted November 28, 2006 Report Share Posted November 28, 2006 i think you can use boot camp too, as this simulates a bios, but don't quote me on that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hirohitosan Posted November 28, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 28, 2006 Thanks again. I'll think about that. It doesn't seems too complicated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted November 28, 2006 Report Share Posted November 28, 2006 i think you can use boot camp too, as this simulates a bios, but don't quote me on that...Yeah, there is a way to do it with boot camp, but I found reffit to be a much better and easier solution. And it didn't require installing Windows ;) (Yes, to do it the boot camp way you have to install Windows) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoulSe Posted November 28, 2006 Report Share Posted November 28, 2006 Parallels is a good option - it bridges the hardware very well and the performance loss is really minimal (I've heard people saying 2%?) The only thing you can't do afaik is direct graphics rendering, for anything else Parallels is the bomb. I used it for running Windows XP and it was solid. EDIT: The overriding problem with Parallels is that it is neither free nor reasonably priced. It's a hefty chunk of change to purchase it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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