I am definately a die-hard mac user (both 9 and X), but i have dome some dabling with various linux versions. All the machines i have put linux on were older ones so i did not have a problem with finding drivers for the hardware i had hooked up. in fact most of the time it found eveything the first time and it worked with the exception of a few pci cards like a NIC i had in an old PI/133 system. I aggree with a previous poster though, linux is and will be for a long time a nerd OS.
How do you feel about Linux
- Thread starter boneske
- Start date
delsoljb32
Dark Archon
would it be worth it for the experience to install linux onto a partitioned mac? i have had limited exposure to linux, but am curious and would like the opportunity to use a full fledged distribution of it, rather than a behind the scenes OS X dabble. Any suggestions?
Viro
Registered
Sure you could partition your hard disk and install Linux on a different partition. I recommend YellowdogLinux since its quite user friendly and is very PPC focused. You might want to wait for a while since they are going to release v4.0 soon and from what I have read it is a major update.
@Randman:
I didn't realise how old this thread was. I stumbled across it while searching for something, can't remember what now
@Randman:
I didn't realise how old this thread was. I stumbled across it while searching for something, can't remember what now
delsoljb32
Dark Archon
yeah, i have plenty of time to kill, plus it will be a good exercise for preparing to go back to school in january. i need to get back into these kinds of things, ive been engrossed in the "business" of computers too long.
i have a 60 GB drive, so a 20/40 Split should suffice if i use the 20 for linux right? I'll have to check out yellowdog, i have a friend who has been using SuSE, is that a good version?
i have a 60 GB drive, so a 20/40 Split should suffice if i use the 20 for linux right? I'll have to check out yellowdog, i have a friend who has been using SuSE, is that a good version?
Viro
Registered
SuSE and Mandrake for PPC are pretty much dead. THey haven't been updated in a long long while. The most current distros for PPC are Yellowdoglinux, Gentoo and Debian listed in order of my preference and IMHO ease of use.
20 GB for Linux should be more than enough especially since you're just gonna be trying it out.
20 GB for Linux should be more than enough especially since you're just gonna be trying it out.
delsoljb32
Dark Archon
cool, im going to look into it this week. im sure i'll be here if i have questions! thanks.
Convert
Tech
Being a PC user (soon to change, hehe), I instaled Linux as a temporary OS.
The story begins....
I have a good PC. 3.2Ghz IP 4 Processor, 200GB HD, Geforce FX 5200 256mb Graphics, DVD Copier, 1024 RAM.
It has NEVER liked Windows. Or Windows has NEVER liked it. It was a brand new machine, BUILT for XP. All went well for a day, installed some games, then it froze whilst loadig XP. Had to to a system recovery, lost my files.
After this, all is fine. ONe month later, I just switch on my PC, and it logs me off, all the time. Cant access my files. SR again.
This happened 8 more times, and I lost all my work. I am a writer, I had 200 poems being published, most gone. I've managed to find them between publishers, so not all is lost.
But at one time, the SR didn't work. Wouldn't install. I had a Linux RedHat disc (well, 3) that I never used. So whilst talking to the Tech support (useless) I installed it.
I LOVED it. ONly problem is, for a 16 yr old like me, it didn't have all the things I wanted (couldnt even pick up the sound card), and there were a lot of progs available for Windows and OS X, but not Linux.
Otherwise, it was great. reat interface, better to customise, more reliable than windows.
I'd recomend having it on one pc, and Windows/OS X on another. But not as a stand alone.
The story begins....
I have a good PC. 3.2Ghz IP 4 Processor, 200GB HD, Geforce FX 5200 256mb Graphics, DVD Copier, 1024 RAM.
It has NEVER liked Windows. Or Windows has NEVER liked it. It was a brand new machine, BUILT for XP. All went well for a day, installed some games, then it froze whilst loadig XP. Had to to a system recovery, lost my files.
After this, all is fine. ONe month later, I just switch on my PC, and it logs me off, all the time. Cant access my files. SR again.
This happened 8 more times, and I lost all my work. I am a writer, I had 200 poems being published, most gone. I've managed to find them between publishers, so not all is lost.
But at one time, the SR didn't work. Wouldn't install. I had a Linux RedHat disc (well, 3) that I never used. So whilst talking to the Tech support (useless) I installed it.
I LOVED it. ONly problem is, for a 16 yr old like me, it didn't have all the things I wanted (couldnt even pick up the sound card), and there were a lot of progs available for Windows and OS X, but not Linux.
Otherwise, it was great. reat interface, better to customise, more reliable than windows.
I'd recomend having it on one pc, and Windows/OS X on another. But not as a stand alone.
Viro
Registered
You should have tried Knoppix. Its a live CD and so the whole OS loads from the disc. Many people use it to recover files from a dead Windows install before reformatting.
Also, Mandrake have launched 10.1 beta for PPC. That is pretty much current, but who knows how long they will support the PPC architecture for?
Also, Mandrake have launched 10.1 beta for PPC. That is pretty much current, but who knows how long they will support the PPC architecture for?
Ailes Grise
Interstellar Immigration
Linux? I think Linux is quite good and I dont think it's too difficult for an average
user to get to grips with it.
I'm not a computer science major nor am I a tech wizard of some sort. When I
expressed an Interest to learn how to use a computer to a friend ( who's a sys
admin), she came over with an old unused Hp pentium 90 comp installed with Red Hat 6.
So, with an additional $10 investment for a monitor, keyboard and mouse from the local Salvation Army outlet, she set the computer up and taught me some basic
command line stuff, using emacs, starting Gnome and how to use the mouse. Bear in mind at that time, I stayed away from computers.
I didn't know what email was and could not even tell the difference between a Mac, Windows or whatever else, but within a week I was surfing the web and writing emails.
When I did buy a brand new computer( a dell dimension 733), I
Asked for Red Hat Linux cause thats what I know how to use. Of course, I wasn't doing any work, just surfing, email, some wordprocessing, and mp3's.
Being a classically trained artist, I wanted to go CG and was recomended a Mac but I could not afford a DP quiksilver G4's so I settled for a refurbished P4 machine with win2kpro. but for many years, I ran Linux even though I was not a tech savvy person. It helped me later when I had to use an SGI machine and some commands I learned still worked in OS X terminal. I installed Suse 9.1 on my pc and found that its easier and better
than when I was staring out with it many years ago
I switched last year and I'm a happy owner of 2 Macs:- a Powerbook and a G5
user to get to grips with it.
I'm not a computer science major nor am I a tech wizard of some sort. When I
expressed an Interest to learn how to use a computer to a friend ( who's a sys
admin), she came over with an old unused Hp pentium 90 comp installed with Red Hat 6.
So, with an additional $10 investment for a monitor, keyboard and mouse from the local Salvation Army outlet, she set the computer up and taught me some basic
command line stuff, using emacs, starting Gnome and how to use the mouse. Bear in mind at that time, I stayed away from computers.
I didn't know what email was and could not even tell the difference between a Mac, Windows or whatever else, but within a week I was surfing the web and writing emails.
When I did buy a brand new computer( a dell dimension 733), I
Asked for Red Hat Linux cause thats what I know how to use. Of course, I wasn't doing any work, just surfing, email, some wordprocessing, and mp3's.
Being a classically trained artist, I wanted to go CG and was recomended a Mac but I could not afford a DP quiksilver G4's so I settled for a refurbished P4 machine with win2kpro. but for many years, I ran Linux even though I was not a tech savvy person. It helped me later when I had to use an SGI machine and some commands I learned still worked in OS X terminal. I installed Suse 9.1 on my pc and found that its easier and better
than when I was staring out with it many years ago
I switched last year and I'm a happy owner of 2 Macs:- a Powerbook and a G5
whyre
*nix Geek
I agree whole-heartedly! I can't tell you the number of PCs I've given away to friends and family with Linux on it. A lot of them even the nicer P4s and AMD-XPs, the warranties had run out, and they were what I call 'Windows broken'. Windows wouldn't install, locked up, just made the machine unusable. So I take the 'Windows broken' stuff home, load up linux (Depending on who I'm giving it to, it is usually SUSE or Gentoo), test it for a few days, and someone would be the proud owner of a new virus free PC.legacyb4 said:
It's a hobby of mine to load various Linuxes (as well as other x86 OSes like QNX or Zeta) and play around with them, and learn the strengths and weaknesses of each so I know who to reccomend to people of various experience levels.
So I'd have to say, in short, that If I'm not on my Mac, I'm running some flavor of linux for x86 hardware.
I've installed Fedora Core 2 on an AMD Athlon 900 MHz a few weeks ago. Installation was a snap - and shorter in time than WinXP. Setup was a breeze and the 'basic things' like web surfing, sending and receiving E-Mail, autoupdating as well as writing with OpenOffice.org's Writer application was all done very, very easily. Now if only _those_ were the only purposes for a computer, the world'd be a fine linux place to live in. No need for anything else. No need for faster computers, either. But: That's not how the world evolves...
Still: People who claim installation of linux is difficult have either got _very_ strange, very old or very new hardware, because with more or less common hardware, everything's just fine and dandy...
Still: People who claim installation of linux is difficult have either got _very_ strange, very old or very new hardware, because with more or less common hardware, everything's just fine and dandy...
texanpenguin
Registered Penguin
With the exception (perhaps) of FC (1 & 2) with Gnome, I despise Linux.
All the perfectly good Dell Opterons at Uni run RedHat 9, since it's free. I choose to use the Gnome WM because KDE was so ugly and unintuitive, and because I hate Konqueror.
These machines routinely will lock up during simple, ordinary, usual tasks (writing C++ code [not compiling or running, WRITING] in nedit), and will refuse to restart until you reinstall the operating system. This is such a problem that the boot manager "Rembo" has two options: Boot Linux, Reinstall Linux. Keep in mind these machines don't get much of a beating. They don't do much. Yet they fail repeatedly.
And these are STOCK DELLS. They're about the most supported hardware you can get in Linux.
So aside from its horrible reliability (despite what everyone else seems to think), there's the issue of its inconsistent and illogical ergonomics. It's all over the place. On occasion, windows will allow you to make them active, and yet not bring them infront of other document windows of the same program. Simple GUI ideas that appear in every operating system aren't there anymore. In gFTP, the connect button is in the most illogical place in the world. People read screen elements (primarily) left to right. So they put the elements in the order "Connect", "Server", "Log-on Details", "Server Settings". What the hell was going on there? Seriously?
I know it comes from the concept of collaborative projects, but to me, it's just a reason to HATE collaborative programming projects. The ones that make it to OS X are, gladly, refined and usable (Mozilla, etc), but so many are tragic.
I've tried to install a simple program once on Linux. I followed the readme (on the site's website) to the letter, but it didn't work. So I went to the program's forum. I asked "why doesn't this work? It keeps telling me such and such isn't valid?" And they say "Well, naturally you need to install * and * and * libs" - the accumulative size of which was well in excess of 40 megs. A 200K program became 40.2MB (which, on dialup, is stupid).
Not to mention that the whole system runs badly and awkwardly, like my regular distaste for its handling of alpha-transparency in the Terminal, and that it all looks pathetic, even with good Window themes.
Fedora Core looks and runs nicely when it's set up right for the computer it's on though, but I still wouldn't use Linux as a primary operating system, ever.
I like Windows (most of the time), I like Mac OS (all of the time), but I despise Linux. I'd prefer to use a BSD shell than use any of the awkward interfaces I've used on Linux. Although Gnome is somewhat usable (unlike KDE which makes me want to eat my own feet instead of sitting at the computer)
All the perfectly good Dell Opterons at Uni run RedHat 9, since it's free. I choose to use the Gnome WM because KDE was so ugly and unintuitive, and because I hate Konqueror.
These machines routinely will lock up during simple, ordinary, usual tasks (writing C++ code [not compiling or running, WRITING] in nedit), and will refuse to restart until you reinstall the operating system. This is such a problem that the boot manager "Rembo" has two options: Boot Linux, Reinstall Linux. Keep in mind these machines don't get much of a beating. They don't do much. Yet they fail repeatedly.
And these are STOCK DELLS. They're about the most supported hardware you can get in Linux.
So aside from its horrible reliability (despite what everyone else seems to think), there's the issue of its inconsistent and illogical ergonomics. It's all over the place. On occasion, windows will allow you to make them active, and yet not bring them infront of other document windows of the same program. Simple GUI ideas that appear in every operating system aren't there anymore. In gFTP, the connect button is in the most illogical place in the world. People read screen elements (primarily) left to right. So they put the elements in the order "Connect", "Server", "Log-on Details", "Server Settings". What the hell was going on there? Seriously?
I know it comes from the concept of collaborative projects, but to me, it's just a reason to HATE collaborative programming projects. The ones that make it to OS X are, gladly, refined and usable (Mozilla, etc), but so many are tragic.
I've tried to install a simple program once on Linux. I followed the readme (on the site's website) to the letter, but it didn't work. So I went to the program's forum. I asked "why doesn't this work? It keeps telling me such and such isn't valid?" And they say "Well, naturally you need to install * and * and * libs" - the accumulative size of which was well in excess of 40 megs. A 200K program became 40.2MB (which, on dialup, is stupid).
Not to mention that the whole system runs badly and awkwardly, like my regular distaste for its handling of alpha-transparency in the Terminal, and that it all looks pathetic, even with good Window themes.
Fedora Core looks and runs nicely when it's set up right for the computer it's on though, but I still wouldn't use Linux as a primary operating system, ever.
I like Windows (most of the time), I like Mac OS (all of the time), but I despise Linux. I'd prefer to use a BSD shell than use any of the awkward interfaces I've used on Linux. Although Gnome is somewhat usable (unlike KDE which makes me want to eat my own feet instead of sitting at the computer)