Mac on Linux

I haven't always admired Macs. In fact, for a long time I considered them "toys" and I considered PCs "tools". However, for what it was designed to do, the Mac is one hell of an OS. It's very stable, easy to use, and built for multimedia. And lately, with the release of Mac OS X and it's POSIX shell, I've really come around to support the Mac. I personally don't think I'd have more use for it over Linux, but now I can finally test that theory.

I stumbled across a screenshot that showed a system running something called Mac on Linux. After looking it over, it seems pretty cool. The free implementation will run any version of Mac above 7.5.2 (with a ROM image), and any version of Mac after 8.6 without a ROM image. Now, coupled with VMWare, I can run nearly every OS out there from the comfort of my Linux environment. Woohoo!

I don't know anything about how stable it is, but if I ever get my hands on a copy of Mac OS X, I'll be sure to give it a try. Especially since there is now a way for me to use f#$%ing QuickTime on Linux!

This may be old news for many of you, but it was new news to me. Hope it's new news to some of you, too. :bigsmile:

Unfortunately, you need a mac running PPC Linux to run this. to run Mac OS on x86(Linux OR Windows) try basilisk II:
http://www.uni-mainz.de/~bauec002/B2Main.html

D'oh! I didn't even see that. Thanks for correcting me, doktorf00bar!

Yup, LinuxPPC + MOL = a free alternative to MacOS X... Not quite as good in some aspects, better in others.

That was going to be my solution for a while, when MacOS 9 started getting me down, but then I got X and, well it is nice enough that I don't feel compeled to switch.

Basalisk is interesting. It is rather limited though. I had an evil plan to go into my boss's computer and change the default shell from explorer to basalisk..., so he would boot and all of a sudden his PC would be System 7..., muahahaha. Since he hates Mac with a passion, I thought it would be funny. But, then I realized I really didn't want to bust into his office..., no sense getting fired/thrown out of school for a prank. Wow, I didn't see the II after the Basalisk..., I might have to borrow someones WinBox and test that out...

One of these day I am going to get another Mac, and put Linux on it. And play with MOL. By that time I plan on having my MacOS X machine stripped of classic. And since I can't stand the classic os any more by itself, MOL would have me sitting in front of a Linux box "emulating" classic, I can live with that. Sort of like the only way I really want to touch windows is with Wine or VirtualPC/VMWare etc.

If I don't have a shell in the nature of sh or bash or tcsh, then I don't see a reason for using the computer (unless someone is paying me)...

Dhej

This is going to sound like an I Switched add, but here goes.

I've been using OS X on a powerbook ti (not quite) exclusively for about 3 months now. I needed a portable machine which could talk equally well with microsoft systems, and linux systems. Plus had all the nix tools that I loved on my linux machines. Linux on my laptop(Compaq) just never seemed to work well. Everything would work fine for a while, and then the screen would go nuts, and white-out. Also, support for the touchpad was chancy as well, I downloaded the drivers for the synaptic touch pad, but about every 3 or four boots it would think that the touchpad didnt exist. I tried many different solutions, several different distros, RH 7.2, 7.3(and most recently I tried 8.0),Suse 7(I think). I think the problem had more to do with my specific laptop than with any of the linux, but, it just didnt work well. Also, I disliked running cygwin in windows for various reasons. Finally I found this powerbook with OS X. Things just work, it has all the nix tools I love and need, it will talk very nicely with file shares on windows servers with hardly any effort at all. Also there is Microsoft Office for it, critical for me, as sometimes I have found odd incompatibilities between star office and MS Office, nothing show stopping, but they seem to handle images embedded in documents very differently. I had to exchange documents with others who were using MS Office, thus, I had to use MS Office. (Supposedly STar Office is much better now, I don't know I havent tested it).

There is a terminal server client for OS X, critical for managing large numbers of windows servers in diverse locations. There is no version that I know of for linux, and while I liked VMWare, I found it very strange to run a virtual terminal server session inside of a virtual operating system, on top of another operating system.

Bottom line is, I switched. Lock stock and barrel. I still use windows for games. I also still use linux for playing around, testing packages, because it is a bear to install a lot of the Open Source software out there on OS X. But, I use OS X for working, almost exclusively. I still have my Compaq laptop dual booting windows 2000 pro and redhat(8.0 now) and I use it for varius things, when I need to leave a machine running a process(tcpdump, snort, iptraf, whatever) in place for a while.

I certainly don't advocate switching for everyone, b ut for my circumstances, OS X on my powerbook fit perfectly.

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My Name is IchNiSan, I am a network administrator and AntiOnline Addict.

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Thanks roswell

IchNiSan, there is a Windows Terminal Server client for Linux, rdesktop. It works quite nicely with Win2k Terminal Server and will probably run on PPC linux as well as intel.

Thanks slarty, I will check that out.

I still have my other issues with it on the laptop though.

server/permanent desktop linux is a different story. One of the reasons I need so many of the nix tools on my laptop is that I have to interact with several linux servers on a daily basis.

IchNiSan --

Great points in your post. I am hoping that this new initiative from Apple gains a bigger foothold for them. The Mac OS X is really something to be proud of.

By the way, you forgot to add the following to your post:

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My name is IchNiSan, and I'm a Network Administrator and AntiOnline Addict.

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:bigsmile: