Install Ubuntu on MacBook Air or not...?

[Kdar]

I got recently MacBook Air.... and was wondering if I should install Ubuntu on it or hold on..

Anyone else who also owns Macbook Air.. How is Ubuntu running on it? or what do you use?

I plan to eventually install Linux on it, since I almost know nothing about Mac OS.

[fontis]

Honestly, I dont know.
I had a MacBook running before, and I had some performance decrease compared to OSX.
Not saying OSX is better in general, but for the laptop it gave me some more battery life.

[buzzingrobot]

OS X *will* deliver better power management.

The integration of the trackpad with OS X is not matched in Linux.

Almost every piece of non-distro specific Linux code has been ported to OS X.

Underneath the GUI, Linux runs the GNU tool set, OS X uses the BSD tools. They are 99% the same.

Do your research before deciding. The differences between Macbook models, as far as Linux is concerned, are often more real than apparent. A how-to for a model that is "almost" like your machine might crash and burn.

[Kdar]

Yes.. After using trackpad to the fullest today on OS X, I kind of like it.. and was wondering if I can get the same integration with Ubuntu.

I guess I could always SSH to it or from it... and install any software such as Libre-Office (or others) that I use the most on my main Linux desktop. I bought it mainly for my family use.. and then occasionally if I need to go to conferences (light and 12 hours battery life).

[buzzingrobot]

Do you know about Homebrew (http://mxcl.github.io/homebrew/), MacPorts (http://www.macports.org/), and Fink (http://www.finkproject.org/) for open source ported to OS X?

[ssam]

OS X *will* deliver better power management.

The integration of the trackpad with OS X is not matched in Linux.

Almost every piece of non-distro specific Linux code has been ported to OS X.

Underneath the GUI, Linux runs the GNU tool set, OS X uses the BSD tools. They are 99% the same.

Do your research before deciding. The differences between Macbook models, as far as Linux is concerned, are often more real than apparent. A how-to for a model that is "almost" like your machine might crash and burn.

but for a lot of opensource projects most of the development is done on linux, and so they work better on linux than mac os x.

i'd recommend dual booting and comparing.

[t0p]

i'd recommend dual booting and comparing.

+1

[HermanAB]

Howdy,

(Writing this on my Mac)

The Mac OSX is OKish once you get to know it a little - kinda annoying in the beginning - but it is mostly BSD (which is an abbreviation for Bladdy Stoopid Dimwit or something like that).

I'd suggest that you install Virtualbox on the Mac and then make a virtual machine of your favourite Linux distribution. I always seem to have Fedora running in a VM and is constantly switching between Linux and Mac applications. I configure the VMs to mount the Documents folder, so everything I do is accessible by all systems.

Some things just don't work well on a Mac, though on the whole it is OK. For example, the file browser and photo apps are fracking terrible and some programs like the Eagle PCB designer is unusable with the Mac touchpad. I get around these little annoyances with a Bluetooth mouse and a Linux VM.

So, do I like a Macbook Pro? It is a very, very nice machine, and I'll recommend it to others, but Linux and its large variety of applications is better than OSX. Even so, I will not re-install the Mac with Linux, since there is a very real possibility that I will then run into hardware device driver issues and I just don't want to have that head-ache.

[buzzingrobot]

I have managed to successfully install one version of Ubuntu on my Macbook Pro. And that required putting a hold on any kernel updates. It is, I'd say, a fragile environment for Linux.

In OS X, the touchpad is quite smoothly integrated and a delight to use. It is the only touchpad I've used that didn't drive me immediately to a mouse.

That integration vanishes in Linux, and you are left with whatever abilities your distribution manages to deliver. In essence, the pad becomes just another Linux trackpad. A few pieces of code are available to increase the ease of using the Macbook's touchpad on Linux. But, I found them to be quirky and problematic.

If this machine is the only machine someone is going to use, I would second Herman and suggest running Linux in a virtual machine on OS X, avoiding the risk and hassle of attempting to install Linux on the machine.

On the other hand, at least give OS X a bit of a try. It's a smooth and capable OS with a vibrant community of indy software vendors.

Of course, it really comes down to what software you want to run. If that's entirely Linux, then frankly, an Air may or may not be the best platform.

The BSD-ness of OS X -- considerably less than many think -- is rather well hidden and probably won't be noticeable unless someone is a down-in-the-weeds OS coder or writes shell scripts that need to be cognizant of the odd difference between the GNU and BSD tool sets.

[daverich]

I'd leave it as it is.

I have a macbook pro which I tried ubuntu on, it really wasn't a better experience than osx.

I have linux on my desktop and osx on the macbook pro - best of both worlds.

Kind regards

Dave Rich

[Kdar]

Yes. After using it for a bit.. and getting to know OS X a bit.. I think I will keep it. I do love using touch pad on MacBook... it's large, doesn't get in the way of keyboard.. and gestures are amazing. I felt as well that it is the only laptop that I didn't feel the need to use mouse instead of touch touch.

I guess having a Linux Desktop and Linux NAS makes this enough for doing anything that I might need there when I am at my house.

I would love to try to change the OS X terminal a bit from the plain white that it is now. Need to figure that out a bit.

[mamamia88]

Defeats the purpose of buying a mba to begin with imo. Ubuntu is a great os but there is nothing really that can't be accomplished in osx. And there might come a time when you want to do something that isn't done easily in linux.

[Porcini M.]

I would love to try to change the OS X terminal a bit from the plain white that it is now. Need to figure that out a bit.

There are options for that up in the top menubar for the terminal application.

[asifnaz]

You can even triple-boot Ubuntu+OSX+Windows best of three worlds .

but I recommend you to install windows and ubuntu in virtual-box

[TNFrank]

I used OS X 10.1.5 for about 7 years on the iMac I bought in 2002 then finally broke down and picked up 10.3.9 but it was still out dated when I bought it but it did what I wanted it to do so I didn't worry too much about it. After 11 years with that iMac a lighting storm finally killed it(YES, it was plugged into a surge protector, best I can figure it was the EMP from the very near by strike that killed it) so not having funds for a new Mac of any kind I dropped back to punt and bought a used HP laptop and installed Ubuntu 12.04.2 and I'm just as happy running it as I was with my OS X AND the software is actually up to date so I can surf the web without that little beach ball waiting for javascript or other out dated stuff to run.
Personally, if you can I'd just dual boot, set aside 20 or so GB for Ubuntu and keep your OS X on the main partition. Then, if you like it pick up an older laptop of one kind or another and do a full install of whatever flavour of Ubuntu or other Linux you want onto it but for sure KEEP your OS X on your MacBook Air. They go together like a hand and a glove, you don't want to ditch OS X but Linux is also fun to use. :D

[markbl]

I bought a new MBA 13" in late 2011 intending to dual boot with Ubuntu which is my primary OS. However, I was not happy with Ubuntu/Linux support of the hardware at the time so I restored the disk back to full OS X and then ran Ubuntu in VirtualBox for much of my day on the machine. That worked quite well. However, from Ubuntu 12.04 till present, VirtualBox 3D support has been buggy such that the guest OS crashes frequently. I can turn off 3D but the guest is much slower and hammers the CPU/battery etc. So now I just leave it in 2D and log in to the Ubuntu guest via ssh from my Mac host (I mainly develop on linux at the command line anyhow). After all this time using OS X, and with all it's extra bells and whistles, I still prefer the Ubuntu Gnome Shell working environment. I guess at Ubuntu 13.10, I may try installing Ubuntu natively dual boot again.