MacBook Air - how compatible to Ubuntu

**maflynn** · May 25th, 2009

I'm kicking around the idea of picking up a used or refurbished MacBook Air machine but before I do that, I wanted to know how compatible it will be for Ubuntu and which model would run Ubuntu the best (the first generation of the MBA or the current one with the better GPU).

The first generation of MBA uses the Intel GMA X3100 or the newer model with the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M.

Any thoughts, or opinions regarding ubuntu on a MBA?

**cmost** · May 25th, 2009

Well, if you're considering a Macbook Air with an Intel video chip, then you should be very concerned about the video performance regressions in Ubuntu 9.04 (and probably to linger in 9.10 as well.) There are workarounds, however, if you're going to go to that trouble you may as well just grab a cheap netbook and try Ubuntu on that.

**maflynn** · May 26th, 2009

Its not that I'm considering the intel GPU perse but rather the one that will have better support in Jaunty. I agree by going with the intel GPU, I'll be paying a performance penalty but that might be offset by increased driver stability.

I've considered a netbook as well and the price is certainly a draw but I'd also want OSX support (even if its on a tiny partition) and while I could build a hackintosh, netbooks rather paltry disk space means I need to choose OSX or ubuntu. I'm not quite there yet. 80% ubuntu, 20% OSX.

**cmost** · May 26th, 2009

Paltry hard disk space you say? Some netbooks I've run across come with a 160 GB hard disk or more. In fact, I just bought my Mom a pink Acer One for Christmas that was very well equipped with 1 GB RAM (expandable to 2 GB,) a 160 GB hard disk, 1.6 GHz Atom processor, onboard web cam, lots of USB 2 ports, onboard camera card (i.e., flash drive) slots, 9" display and much more... This thing is razer thin and it's cute as a bug's ear.

This Acer came with Windows XP but can run Ubuntu or any recent Linux distro with aplomb. The cost? $249.00 out the door. Now that's paltry.

**cyberdork33** · May 26th, 2009

A new page for Jaunty has not yet been created, but the Intrepid page shows some of the stuff that had to be fixed:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Ma...ir1-1/Intrepid

I'd expect some of these to work without mods now...

**Fzang** · May 27th, 2009

Originally Posted by maflynn

Its not that I'm considering the intel GPU perse but rather the one that will have better support in Jaunty. I agree by going with the intel GPU, I'll be paying a performance penalty but that might be offset by increased driver stability.

I've considered a netbook as well and the price is certainly a draw but I'd also want OSX support (even if its on a tiny partition) and while I could build a hackintosh, netbooks rather paltry disk space means I need to choose OSX or ubuntu. I'm not quite there yet. 80% ubuntu, 20% OSX.

If you want a netbook and you want OS X, well, that's possible

There's a netbook with 90% OS X support for hackintosh

Don't know how much more I'm allowed to tell as hackintosh is a shhh subject mods seem to dislike