Downloading Linux for Mac.

ziess

ziess

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Anybody give me a good version of linux to download and burn on a CD on this windows piece of s**t and can install on my eMac. I just fancy mucking about with it on spare partition for a while. I really just want to download it burn it and install it with as little crap as possible involved.
Thanks.
Tommy.
 
Thanks very much.
I trust it is relativley easy to install/use once the iso is burnt to CD ie. it installs off the cd directly for most of them (im trying yellow dog)
 
Here's a short list:

Mandrake = Easiest to install
Debian = Easiest to install things on
Gentoo = Fastest, cleanest (very difficult to install)
Yellow Dog Linux = Easiest to use

good luck :)
 
Is there a small version of Linux that's OS X-compatible? I'd like to try it, but the biggest thing holding me back is the size. I don't want to have to download 2 GB of stuff just to play around with an OS, especially since I'd have to use it on my iMac (and there's no Ethernet for file transfer, just CD's).
 
I am now using a PERFECT Gentoo iBook. You can download the LiveCD which is ~500 - ~600 MB and from there onwards you only download stuff you need and nothing you don't want. There's something new called GRP (Gentoo Reference Platform) in which they release a second CD containing prebuilt packages so you don't have to sit and wait to compile everything.

Gentoo is not that hard to install if you know what you're doing, and have a spare computer to visit the forums and read docs/ask for help. And GRP makes it so much faster and easier. I got a whole Linux system with XFree and KDE up and running in one night instead of days of compiling.

Also want to point out that all my laptop features like sleeping and brightness/volume buttons work perfectly.
 
I think those are hardwired to work like that, even though you can exchange functionality by using fn and such.

Is there a small version of Linux? For one thing, I don't have much space available to use it (my dad would never let me use it on this computer, and my iMac's close to capacity). For another, I've been downloading a file (TacOps 332 for UT) for a couple hours, and it's only 1/2 done (99 MB out of 194). DSL helps, but it's not as quick as I'd like.
 
Trust me, those buttons are not hardwired to do that :) It's very much OS dependent. You could map the functionality to any key you want, you just have to watch out for conflicts with other hot keys.

I know of a few Linux distros that are tiny, but then again they are mostly command line only or use very light weight desktop environments, and they're x86 only. MikeXpop's list above pretty much covers all the PPC distros, I'll just add SuSE to the mix.

So it comes down to how much of the Linux experience you want. If you want the whole desktop experience you'll have to find a way to make room for it. Otherwise, I hope you like the command line :D
 
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