Re: Newbie questions re: Linux on Mac

From: Daniel Boline (ddboline_at_comcast.net)
Date: 10/10/04

  • Next message: Pascal Bourguignon: "Re: How do you like Linux on Mac" 
    Date: Sat, 09 Oct 2004 21:11:51 -0400

    cc0259099 wrote:

    > Hi All:
    >
    > I'm considering a switch from Mac OSX to Linux because of extreme
    > frustration with Apple customer support. A long time customer and
    > supporter of Apple, never a fan of Windows, I'm hoping to load Linux
    > on my powerbook as the first step in the transition away from Apple.
    > Might as well keep using the powerbook until it dies and/or apple care
    > runs out.
    >
    > I'm not a programmer. I'm a home and small business user who needs
    > email, www, newsgroups, music and dvd playing/burning capability,
    > accounting (Quicken), word-processing, simple digital image
    > manipulation and address book functions. In other words, I'm a
    > typical computer user, and to be honest I've been very happy with
    > Panther OSX.
    >
    > My initial research shows that Yellow Dog has the easiest install,
    > good
    > support, and should run easily on my 12" Powerbook and older Pismo
    > Powerbook.
    >
    > How likely is it that I'll be satisfied with Yellow Dog Linux on my
    > Mac?
    >
    > Will the Linux OS take over every function currently handled by
    > Panther?
    >
    > If Linux alone won't do what I need, is it easy to keep Linux and
    > Panther side-by-side, either in separate partitions or on the same
    > hard drive?
    >
    > Are there any particular advantages for me in switching over to Linux,
    > aside from no longer giving money to Apple? Eventually, my plan
    > would be to run Linux on a non-Apple machine.
    >
    > Is this a futile exercise, there being no escape from the frustrations
    > of bad customer support in this day and age???
    >
    > By the way, here's the issue that prompted this: I ordered a
    > powerbook on line for my daughter and received an empty box-- Apple
    > customer service has been rude and useless-- 9 days after the empty
    > box arrived, Apple has done nothing and essentially refuses to do
    > anything until
    > their 'logistics' department has finished an investigation. Their
    > customer service has been so awful that I can't in good conscience
    > continue to buy their products. Unless, of course, the alternatives
    > are worse....
    >
    > TIA
    > Michael

    If you have no experience with linux, and you've had no problems with
    responsiveness from OSX, then, while I'd encourage you to try linux as
    a hobby, I don't think I'd recommend it for normal business (unless of
    course you already know your way around the system).

    Linux on the x86 is a huge market, and its fairly easy to find easy to
    install/configure distributions which would probably fit your needs.
    On the PPC (mostly Mac) there are a smaller number of available
    distributions, and a significantly smaller number of users.

    That said, I'm pretty happy with Linux on PPC. It has allowed my to
    turn an apparently hobbled Mac G3 tower into a fairly fast, responsive
    little linux box. The only problems I've seen are closed source
    programs, and certain applications making extensive use of assembler
    instructions on x86. 

    -- 
Daniel Boline
Dept of Physics, Boston University
  • Next message: Pascal Bourguignon: "Re: How do you like Linux on Mac"

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