How many use only Ubuntu on a Mac?

[yester64]

I was wondering if there are any or some people using just Ubuntu on their mac's.
I was debating with myself if i should upgrade my pc or just get a mac (older or newer) and run Ubuntu on that.
Macs just look nicer, i think. But thats just me.

So what you do?

[Qola]

I dualboot 9.10 and Leopard on a Mac mini atm. To be honest a normal pc is better than a Mac for ubuntu.

[mamamia88]

excuse me if i was wrong but didn't you say the other day that you where low on money and that you couldn't afford more than $500 for a laptop so you had to upgrade your desktop instead?

[Psumi]

I don't have a mac: Too expensive.

[jrusso2]

OS X is what macs the mac special. I can't see not using it. Like using a very simple Unix based OS with the power of Linux and none of the hassles.

I run Linux also and Windows but I can't see paying for a mac and not using OS X as thats the best part.

[handy]

I've been using Linux on an 2007 model 24" iMac since November 07. It has been on Arch since March 08.

I duel boot, because of possible firmware upgrades that may come from Apple. I also have a couple of odd jobs that I do use OS X for on the very rare occasion.

Arch is quicker than OS X, & allows me to configure virtually everything, which is quite the opposite re OS X.

I made an Arch installation how-to which is posted in the Arch wiki, if nothing else you may learn a few Apple specific things there:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/IMac_Aluminium

The above how-to installs Gnome, though I have been using Openbox instead for quite a long time now. :)

[handy]

OS X is what macs the mac special.

That is what you think.

But it is NOT what some others think.

So in your mind you are of course totally correct.

In mine you are of course totally wrong. :)

The 24" iMac works perfectly for me in the space provided, I am truly happy with the purchase.

The ONLY thing I don't like about the design, is that I can't upgrade the GPU. [Edit:] I forgot, personally the keyboard has no feel so I don't use it & the mighty mouse, is the worst mouse I have ever used in my life, so I don't use that either. ;)

I have already upgraded the 320GB drive to a 1.5TB drive, using Clonezilla, a suction cup & a small philips head screw driver & a T6 & T9 Torx.

People should use whatever they can manage to, to do the job they want.

[kernelhaxor]

That is what you think.

But it is NOT what some others think.

So in your mind you are of course totally correct.

In mine you are of course totally wrong. :)

The 24" iMac works perfectly for me in the space provided, I am truly happy with the purchase.

The ONLY thing I don't like about the design, is that I can't upgrade the GPU.

I have already upgraded the 320GB drive to a 1.5TB drive, using Clonezilla, a suction cup & a small philips head screw driver & a T6 & T9 Torx.

People should use whatever they can manage to, to do the job they want.

So its not OSX that makes it special .. and you already said what you don't like about it ..

Just curious as to what makes the iMac special to you? compactness?

[yester64]

excuse me if i was wrong but didn't you say the other day that you where low on money and that you couldn't afford more than $500 for a laptop so you had to upgrade your desktop instead?

lol... yes, still valid.
I just look into possibilities, thats all. I always liked macs, but since they are more expensive i never got one of the new ones.
But i did had an older G3 desktop. Since then i used PC's. My main draw to mac is the Mac Mini. I like the formfactor and the sexiness of that computer.
The question is not really my budget, but rather when i can buy. Perhaps used which is an option too if i go for a mac.

[handy]

So its not OSX that makes it special .. and you already said what you don't like about it ..

Just curious as to what makes the iMac special to you? compactness?

Yes, the size & shape suit me perfectly. As far as its performance is concerned it does all I need well. Though I'm certainly enjoying the rapid progress of the open-source ATi GPU support at the moment, as very shortly I will be able to kiss Catalyst goodbye forever. :)

P.S. I did have a couple of other gripes with the iMac which I posted in an edit in my previous post.

[yester64]

Yes, the size & shape suit me perfectly. As far as its performance is concerned it does all I need well. Though I'm certainly enjoying the rapid progress of the open-source ATi GPU support at the moment, as very shortly I will be able to kiss Catalyst goodbye forever. :)

P.S. I did have a couple of other gripes with the iMac which I posted in an edit in my previous post.

That is exactly what draws me to the mac. Its the style and the size.
Honestly, it just looks good in a room. I can not stress enough how ugly my pc looks, even if it was stylish in pc terms.
I always go unconventional ways and i see certainly not a nono to run just linux on a mac.

[Qola]

That is exactly what draws me to the mac. Its the style and the size.
Honestly, it just looks good in a room. I can not stress enough how ugly my pc looks, even if it was stylish in pc terms.
I always go unconventional ways and i see certainly not a nono to run just linux on a mac.

If you do get an older Mac Mini, make sure it isn't the Intel GMA 950 one.

[SmittyJensen]

That is what you think.

But it is NOT what some others think.

So in your mind you are of course totally correct.

In mine you are of course totally wrong. :)

The 24" iMac works perfectly for me in the space provided, I am truly happy with the purchase.

The ONLY thing I don't like about the design, is that I can't upgrade the GPU. [Edit:] I forgot, personally the keyboard has no feel so I don't use it & the mighty mouse, is the worst mouse I have ever used in my life, so I don't use that either. ;)

I have already upgraded the 320GB drive to a 1.5TB drive, using Clonezilla, a suction cup & a small philips head screw driver & a T6 & T9 Torx.

People should use whatever they can manage to, to do the job they want.
os x IS what makes macs special. you can get small pcs too, you know.

[SmittyJensen]

If you do get an older Mac Mini, make sure it isn't the Intel GMA 950 one.

Tell me about it.

[handy]

...
Honestly, it just looks good in a room.

For me it wasn't the looks, it was the purely practical use of the space available on my table (which I made out of a double bunk frame, it's 6ft 7" wide by 3ft 5" deep & full!) the iMac gave me a large display where there wasn't room for a computer. I guess a mac mini & a large screen could have fit in the same space though.

[Qola]

Tell me about it.

Another victim?

[handy]

os x IS what makes macs special. you can get small pcs too, you know.

To YOU it might be, to me it's not. I don't really like OS X.

I wasn't aware of any iMac clones around when I bought mine.

& yes I do know about small PC's, I built a MiniITX way back when VIA first put them out, they have a 7"x7" motherboard.

[yester64]

If you do get an older Mac Mini, make sure it isn't the Intel GMA 950 one.

May i ask what is wrong with that chip? I am curious. :)

[Qola]

May i ask what is wrong with that chip? I am curious. :)

Because the OSX drivers suck. Windows XP under bootcamp can run with more shared memory than OSX, and getting KMS running is a nightmare.

[handy]

Because the OSX drivers suck. Windows XP under bootcamp can run with more shared memory than OSX, and getting KMS running is a nightmare.

The OS X drivers for the ATi GPU in the iMac are vastly superior, & consistently so, than the inconsistent rubbish that AMD/ATi have been throwing out at the Linux community over the last two years at least.

Thankfully those days are fast coming to an end, due to the dramatic improvements that are well & truly in progress on that front, due to the hard work of the people that are implementing the radically new open-source alternative.

[cariboo]

I have a Blueberry imac, that I use for mainly for playing mp3's. It's running Xubuntu only. Everything worked right out of the box.

[hellmet]

I really like the way MACs and OSX look(s), but anything I see in excess around me, I won't buy. Too many iPhones, MACs. Nah.. not for me.

[TheNessus]

OS X is what macs the mac special..

macs the mac. lol.

[Presto123]

IMO, I wouldn't put that kind of money into a Mac. I would, instead, buy a $300 lappy and upgrade it in all the places I need OR build my own desktop from scratch. My lappy is a Compaq that I just ended up upgrading the ram, dual-booted it with Ubuntu and has been a great little pal and I ended up paying probably tops of $500 but that's been a few years back.

[Qola]

The OS X drivers for the ATi GPU in the iMac are vastly superior, & consistently so, than the inconsistent rubbish that AMD/ATi have been throwing out at the Linux community over the last two years at least.

Thankfully those days are fast coming to an end, due to the dramatic improvements that are well & truly in progress on that front, due to the hard work of the people that are implementing the radically new open-source alternative.

Try reading my previous posts in this thread, I was talking about Intel OSX IGP drivers only!

[handy]

Try reading my previous posts in this thread, I was talking about Intel OSX IGP drivers only!

Intel GPUs are also getting the same open-source treatment - which is basically incorporating the drivers into the kernel & mesa. ATi are the ones that are moving fastest at the moment though. :)

[Sand & Mercury]

Snow Leopard and Windows Vista atm on my 27" iMac.

I haven't been able to find a Linux distro yet that can successfully boot. :/

[handy]

Snow Leopard and Windows Vista atm on my 27" iMac.

I haven't been able to find a Linux distro yet that can successfully boot. :/

You installed rEFIt (http://refit.sourceforge.net/)?

[Exodist]

I have an older eMac which I have Jaunty installed on.

[RandomJoe]

I have a small collection of Macs now. An old PPC Mini, a new Intel Mini (with nVidia GPU) and the primary workhorse is a Macbook Pro.

The PPC Mini I haven't quite decided what to do with, but it has run both OS X and Linux at one time or another.

The Intel Mini is going to be a "media machine", feeding the stereo and projector. It's set up for dual-boot, OS X and Ubuntu. Works fine on either, other than X not happy with dual-screens when one is the projector. Should just be some configuration, hopefully - haven't had time to work on it recently. Once that is solved, booting to OS X will probably be a very rare event. (I've used Linux / Myth / MPlayer for years.)

The MBP was originally going to be dual-boot, but I found I liked OS X quite a bit and then realized that the best "bang for the buck" was to run both OSes at the same time. So it boots OS X, and Ubuntu is very often (almost always) running in a VM. Best of both worlds! :)

[gjoellee]

I don't have a Mac. If was looking at a Mac Book Pro, but I found a better laptop at Dell, what was about 3000kr (NOK) cheaper. That is about 400€ (EUR), or 530$ (USD)

[Qola]

Intel GPUs are also getting the same open-source treatment - which is basically incorporating the drivers into the kernel & mesa. ATi are the ones that are moving fastest at the moment though. :)

I'm sorry, but am I missing something here? I made a statement about the Intel drivers on OS X being terrible, and you keep rabbiting on about open source ATI? :confused:

[Sand & Mercury]

You installed rEFIt (http://refit.sourceforge.net/)?

It boots from the disc fine, and gets as far as the splash screen (for Ubuntu and OpenSUSE) -- as soon as it tries to start X, it craps out and drops me to the terminal with the screen blinking incessantly.

[handy]

I'm sorry, but am I missing something here? I made a statement about the Intel drivers on OS X being terrible, and you keep rabbiting on about open source ATI? :confused:

It would seem so. My first reply that quoted your post, was an adjunct that was merely indicating that not ALL OS X GPU drivers were crap, with a little hopefully helpful information for a reader who may stumble on the post later.

My 2nd reply was adding to the first, that the Intel open-source support was happening also but not as quick as the other <nameless> brand of GPU.

There is no problem here, except that perhaps your focus is a little too tight.

No worries. :)


It boots from the disc fine, and gets as far as the splash screen (for Ubuntu and OpenSUSE) -- as soon as it tries to start X, it craps out and drops me to the terminal with the screen blinking incessantly.

Did you use sync partitions from the rEFIt menu?

I expect that GRUB is on partition 4, but 3 is ok, 5 is NOT.

Following is something like what I expect you have partition wise. Do you have a /swap partition & if so where is it?

sda1 = fat32 - EFI reserved partition
sda2 = HFS+ - OS X
sda3 = NTFS - Windows
sda4 = GRUB in /boot/grub with Linux on the same partition or did you set up GRUB in its own /boot partition? & if so you could have
sda5 = Linux system

You have only one Linux system on the machine currently? I take it from your post that you have tried both Ubuntu & OpenSuse, is that right?

I ask this because the GPT partitioning scheme that Apple uses allows OS X to see no more than 4 partitions on the internal drive that can be used to boot from. So it is important that GRUB is on partition 3 or 4.

You may find it worthwhile reading this wiki article I wrote, just the start of it up until it starts down the installing Arch bit, as it goes into quite some detail on Apples unusual partitioning system:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/IMac_Aluminium

Also, if you search the web for "triple booting os x" you will find some detailed instructions on using both Bootcamp & rEFIt to do what you want.

Please let me know about your partitioning scheme, as it is most likely where your problem lies?

[yester64]

only linux. virtualbox to virtual other os.

You are one of the six people that run only linux on a mac. Nice.
Which mac to you have if i may ask.

[Qola]

It would seem so. My first reply that quoted your post, was an adjunct that was merely indicating that not ALL OS X GPU drivers were crap, with a little hopefully helpful information for a reader who may stumble on the post later.

My 2nd reply was adding to the first, that the Intel open-source support was happening also but not as quick as the other <nameless> brand of GPU.

There is no problem here, except that perhaps your focus is a little too tight.

No worries. :)


O-k.