Saturday, May 20, 2006

 

Moving or not?

May 20, 2006

In my eyes, the attraction to the new MacBook and MacBook Pro, is purely physical(my apologies to Rod Stewart's song "Maggie Mae") for Linux ethusiasts.

Who wouldn't want to run their favorite Linux distribution on the new Apple laptops, with dual core processor, great LCD screens, Super Drive, seductively designed form etc...

But, wait, what about the great Mac OS X? Don't forget underneath the Mac OS X GUI runs a BSD heritage! Mac OS X was based on the OpenStep OS(which was built from Mach which was developed as a kernal replacement for 4.3BSD Unix in 1986. Much of Mac OS X is amenable for configuration to meet your hardware and software needs, if you have the skills, time, and inclination. For the Linux world, the ability to reconfigure Linux to suit your hardware and software needs is one of many attractive points for Linux, and may be the most irresistable part of the Max OS X for the Linux enthusiasts.

However the new Intel EFI used in the MacBooks could be a point of concern for Linux. If the distribution supports the Intel EFI specifications, then, Linux has part of the building blocks needed to run on the Intel based Macbooks, and Macbook Pro. There are few more pieces that need to be in place before a Linux distribution boots on the MacBooks in same way Linux boots in the PC world, but, I'm confident given time, and the can do attitude of the Linux community it can done.

But, all of comments mentioned so far, only applies to the PowerPC version of the Mac OS X. While Apple secretly made Intel versions of the Mac OS X in years past, Apple is rumoured to have locked down the released Intel version of Mac OS X, so that reconfiguration of the Intel Mac OS X for whatever reason, will be difficult at best.

So, what to do? what to do?

If you're planning to try to dual, or triple boot with the Mac OS X, and various Linux distributions, you need to watch closely what is going on in the Linux community, then try it when you feel confident for your situation, your efforts will be successful.

If you want to explore the Power PC Mac OS X world, pick up a new(quickly now) or used desktop or laptop and explore!

As for the Intel Mac OS X, well, I suggest you watch what happens in the next 12 months, and see if Apple changes it mind about the rumoured lockdown of the OS.

If Apple doesn't, then the Intel Mac OS X becomes like the Windows world and we all know how much fun that will be......

If Apple changes its mind, watch what happens, and jump in when you feel you can be successful.....

Until the next post.....







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