Linux support for Mac hardware (Re: [Techtalk] Linux Laptops)

[Juliet Kemp]

On Thu, Oct 27, 2005 at 04:58:53PM +1000, Kathryn Andersen wrote:
> 
> It's a thought, though.  I was assuming that Intel x86 would be the best
> supported, but if I got a Mac (a) I wouldn't be paying Windows Tax and
> (b) I might actually want to dual boot, rather than wiping the disk.
> I hear that Macs have some yummy multimedia tools.  On the other hand,
> it's such a bother having a dual-boot machine; one generally spends most
> of one's time in one O/S anyway, and then one misses the things one
> doesn't have in the other one.

Mac OSX is FreeBSD-based, so you do get a command line & all the rest of
it.  And a lot of Linux software is ported to Mac (go look at
http://fink.sourceforge.net/ , and there's also a lot that's more
directly ported).  You can run X on Mac, although it's a bit slow.  What
are you planning to use the laptop for?

I have Linux on the desktop (Debian for my own machine, RHEL for the
ones I admin at work), Solaris for the two servers, & a Powerbook
laptop, and the Powerbook is *great*.  My experience of Linux & laptops
has always been that there's a lot of hassle, whereas the Mac Just
Works, and is a pleasure to use, as well.  I'm recommending them now to
all my users who talk to me about laptops.  


Juliet