Hagbard
November 10th, 2006, 07:58 PM
I'm running Ubuntu 6.06 as a virtual machine within Parallels Desktop and I'm 100% happy with it. I've had perfect usability and stability, and very solid performance. Easy installation, setup, update, and all additional software I've downloaded and installed has worked. I would recommend this setup to anyone who wants to have their cake and eat it too!
My machine is a low end iMac, the 17" 2.0 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo with 1 GB RAM and a 150 GB hd. I have no problem simultaneously multitasking in OS X and Ubuntu, although I'm sure I'd need more RAM for good performance with huge apps or files. I've been staying within Ubuntu for 90% of my work time, OS X is running iTunes for music in the background, and I pause the VM and switch to OS X for any large file size multimedia processing work, like DVD mastering in iMovie.
With this setup I have all the flexibility of Linux and simultaneous access to Apple's easy to use multimedia programs. Also, virtualization means that I can easily setup additional systems without disrupting anything. I want to try out 6.10 with KDE as a front end, so I can just make a new 6.10 Kubuntu Virtual Machine without disrupting anything in my 6.06 GNOME setup that I know is stable and functional. I don't use Windows but Parallels supports it as well, so users coming from a Win/Lin dual boot system can carry over all of their functionality.
Bottom line: you can use an Intel Mac as a base platform to run desktop Linux with all the extra benefits of virtualization, and the ability to support Windows as well. You have access to Apple's proprietary software (much of which is included with the hardware) but aren't "locked in".
My machine is a low end iMac, the 17" 2.0 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo with 1 GB RAM and a 150 GB hd. I have no problem simultaneously multitasking in OS X and Ubuntu, although I'm sure I'd need more RAM for good performance with huge apps or files. I've been staying within Ubuntu for 90% of my work time, OS X is running iTunes for music in the background, and I pause the VM and switch to OS X for any large file size multimedia processing work, like DVD mastering in iMovie.
With this setup I have all the flexibility of Linux and simultaneous access to Apple's easy to use multimedia programs. Also, virtualization means that I can easily setup additional systems without disrupting anything. I want to try out 6.10 with KDE as a front end, so I can just make a new 6.10 Kubuntu Virtual Machine without disrupting anything in my 6.06 GNOME setup that I know is stable and functional. I don't use Windows but Parallels supports it as well, so users coming from a Win/Lin dual boot system can carry over all of their functionality.
Bottom line: you can use an Intel Mac as a base platform to run desktop Linux with all the extra benefits of virtualization, and the ability to support Windows as well. You have access to Apple's proprietary software (much of which is included with the hardware) but aren't "locked in".