Filed under: Hardware, Software
The race to get Linux on Intel Macs
ComputerWorld has an interesting
article up about how the various flavors of Linux are working, or not working, towards running on the new Intel
Macs. Since the chips in the new Macs use the relatively new EFI (the successor to BIOS) most Linux distros will not
work on the Intel Macs, yet. Ubuntu, Novell, and Red Hat are all working on porting their OS's to the new Macs.One flavor of Linux that you won't be able to run on your brand spanking new iMac (ever) is Yellow Dog. Terra Soft will not be porting their OS, which was designed especially for the Power PC architecture.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
kip Davis said 11:29AM on 2-10-2006
is yellow dog the only flavor of linux currently available for powerpc?
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Ikzann said 12:51PM on 2-10-2006
No. Pretty much all of the Linux flavors support PPC. Ubuntu, Debiam, Gentoo, etc.
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CharlesP said 2:01PM on 2-10-2006
It's not the only flavor available on PPC but I think it is the "biggest name". However, Yellow Dog Linux is essentially just Red Hat/Fedora ported over to PPC architecture... so when Red Hat has an Intel Mac version functional you'll have pretty close to the same set-up if you're already used to YDL.
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penginkun said 12:28PM on 2-11-2006
I'm sure people will think I'm flaming, but I'm not: What's the point of this other than the "Look what I can do!" factor? This was great back in the days of MacOS 9 and earlier because you could have a Unix-like OS on Mac hardware and repurpose older machines. But MacOS X IS Unix. Is there anything Linux can do that MacOS X cannot? Or is this just a "because it's there" project?
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bad analog said 10:47PM on 2-11-2006
penginkun, I don't think you're flaming, rather I think it's a valid question. However, I can think of several really good (geek) reasons to run Linux on my mac:
- I can infinitely customize the underlying software setup for the specific task I'm using the machine for. This is especially important when talking about servers, etc
- Doing dev work for Linux requires actual Linux, not another POSIX compatible OS. There are several key Linux developers who use Apple hardware, and ditch the OS (Linus T, for one). While Linux is based on UNIX, it's not really UNIX. OS X (darwin) is really UNIX. So it's a little different.
- License fees (and freedom, but we all know it's because of the $$ fees) -- if you want to stick it to the man, etc. OS X Server costs $999 for instance for a server quality OS, whereas a server grade Linux costs far less.
- Most of the Linux development as a whole is already on Intel, so it makes perfect sense to port to these newer Intel archetectures. Porting to this EFI will make it easier to port newer Dells, HP's, etc that use EFI.
Regardless, for the average user you're right that Linux offers very little in the way of additional functionality and features over Tiger. Web Surfing, emailing, etc -- and it's hard to beat iLife 06!
I think the real point of this story is that the EFI is so different that a linux port wasn't somehow automatic. It's just one more thing about these new Intel Macs that's new and interesting.
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