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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.

Filed under: OS, iMac, Open Source, Macbook Pro

Red Hat Linux distro to boot on Intel Macs

They haven't mentioned exactly HOW they will make Red Hat Linux boot on the new Intel-based Macs, but a Red Hat spokesperson has confirmed they are committed to creating a distro for the new hardware. This may take a while because they haven't yet purchased any Intel Macs. Secondly Red Hat Fedora hasn't even begun to discuss whether they will be taking a grub or lilo tactic as a bootloader.

As mentioned here before, even with EFI support in existing open source tools, getting the new MacIntels to boot something other than OS X has proven tricky.

Linux support will eventually happen for the new platform (and related hardware in the new machines), but I'm not sure Red Hat will be the first distro to achieve that. As always with Linux and BSD, flame wars descend over which flavor is better. The reality is that I use different distros for different uses/machines. Anyhow, a Linux distro on a new Intel Mac may end up being many Linux distros once the bootloader troubles are resolved.

[via Ars Technica]

Tip of the Day

To get an instant map to any address, just go to your Address Book and right click on the address field of any one of your contacts and select "Map Of." The address will then be revealed in Google Maps on Safari. You can do the same if a data detector determines there is an address in an e-mail in Mail.


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