I received a private tweet from a reader the other day, who asked a question about a previous post in which I had installed Windows 7 RC1 on a Mac using Sun's VirtualBox. The tweet asked, "You did a post about installing Win 7 on the Mac for free. How about Linux?," which set up a challenge. Not only can you install Linux distributions on a Mac using VirtualBox, but it's extremely easy to do.

Why would you want to run Linux on a Mac? There are probably a few good reasons -- learning about a different OS, using software that's not available on the Mac platform, or for a Linux class in school. While you can create a bootable partition on your Mac and boot Linux from it, I prefer to do things the lazy way. In this short how-to post, I'll demonstrate how I installed Ubuntu Linux 9.04, also known as "Jaunty Jackalope."

When it comes to virtualization on the Mac, it's mostly discussed in the context of running a variant of Microsoft Windows. This makes sense; the ease of getting Windows to run within OS X (on Intel hardware) is one of the key reasons many first-time Mac buyers are migrating to Apple. However, Windows is hardly the only game in town.

Although the annual proclamations of "the year of the Linux desktop" haven't really panned out, thanks to distributions like Ubuntu, more and more individuals are at least giving Linux a try. Today, Canonical made both the server and desktop versions of Ubuntu 8.10 (codenamed 'Intrepid Ibex') available for download.

Even before the Intel switch, PPC users could effectively run Linux distros on their machines, but virtualization coupled with Intel hardware has made running a VM of Ubuntu -- or any Linux distribution -- fairly painless. Using commercial software like VMware Fusion 2.0 or Parallels Desktop, or open source and free solutions like VirtualBox, you can set up an Ubuntu virtual machine much like you would with Windows.

If you have ever installed a Windows virtual machine, using Parallels, Fusion or VirtualBox, the process for installing Ubuntu is almost exactly the same. Download the Ubuntu 8.10 ISO image (a slow process today with the demand for the new release; it should speed up next week, and there are Bittorrent seeds for faster service) and then select that image for the virtual CD drive when creating your VM. The process, depending on your system, should take under 20 minutes from beginning to end.

Today, I set up a virtual machine of Ubuntu 8.10 in both VMware Fusion 2.0 and VirtualBox 2.04. Parallels Desktop works with Ubuntu, but I had problems trying to get Ubuntu 8.04 installed and am still reading reports of problems with 8.10. Parallels might work just fine with Ubuntu 8.10, but keep in mind that it might be kludgy.

Read on for more install options.

Dust off those old iBooks and Powerbooks and give them new life with Linux. Earlier this week, Ubuntu released version 7.04 of their desktop and server distribution, called "Feisty Fawn." While version 6 was the last officially supported version of Ubuntu for PPC, there is a community-supported PPC version of Feisty Fawn that you can download here. Ubuntu is a free (as in speech and beer) download.

Also, Yellow Dog Linux version 5.0.1 for PPC was made available in the Terra Soft store earlier this month, and the download mirrors will be availabe in a few weeks. For now, you can purchase YDL from Terra Soft in one of two bundles, priced at $99.95 and $49.95 respectively.

[Via MacSlash]

This week's desktop is a bit of a curve ball and interesting (in our humble opinion) for three reasons. First, this isn't Mac OS X at all: it's a hot new beta version of Ubuntu 7.04, arguably one of the most popular versions of Linux with quite a bit of steam behind it for a number of reasons, which is likely running via Parallels or Boot Camp (we knew we could make the exception because it's from Flickr user Ali Karbassi, who we've noticed submitting plenty of Mac OS X wallpapers to our TUAW Flickr Desktops Pool). The second reason we gave this penguin-fueled desktop some time in the spotlight is because of what appears to be either some sort of dual-display setup that Ali is running, or one ultra wide display that we wouldn't mind getting our hands on. The last reason, of course, actually has to deal with the wallpaper itself: it's a great shot and we'd love to know where to snag a copy!

If you'd like to see your unique, functional or otherwise interesting desktop featured in our TUAW Desktops of the Week series, check out past featured desktops as well as the original post for the rules and to get an idea of what we're looking for. Then, upload your desktop screenshot to our TUAW Desktops Flickr group. We'll feature one or more desktops each weekend, giving credit to the desktop owner, wallpaper creator and any apps featured in the screenshot (if available). Keep those desktops rolling in!

[Update: The actual wallpaper here is the work of deviantART user el1as, titled In the dark.]

Attention people who run Ubuntu on your PowerPC Macs! Good, I think I have managed to get the attention of the 3 people that fall into that category. The PowerPC distribution on Ubuntu will be classified as 'unofficial' as of version 7.04.

What does that mean? It means that if there are any bugs in the Ubuntu code that really break things on the PowerPC side, the release will not be held up to fix them. Furthermore, the Ubuntu PowerPC Architecture Team will be responsible for supporting the codebase for the PowerPC distribution. If you would like more details about this decision check out the PowerPCReview page on the Ubuntu wiki.

I have fooled around with Ubuntu, and it is a nice, solid OS (heck, Peter Rojas loves it and that's gotta count for something) but I can't say this is a surprise. Apple isn't pumping out any PowerPC machines anymore, so clearly support for that chipset will wane over the years.

[via MacSlash]

Parallels Desktop is all the rage in Mac virtualization these days, but it doesn't offer one major feature (yet): the ability to run Vista on an Intel Mac (believe it or not, this will be useful to many a Mac user). Sure, they've promised it's coming on their blog, but who wants to wait for Parallels when the open source virtualization project Q can already do it?

That's right: if you have a copy of the public beta 2 of Vista (which unfortunately closed not long ago), you can check out their documentation (which boldly welcomes Parallels switchers) with simple instructions for installing Vista as a virtual machine. However: I don't know yet what is and is not supported under Q. Parallels has had issues up until this latest beta with supporting a lot of USB devices, amongst other things. Vista requires some heavy video card support, so I don't know how well it will run depending on how much support Q (and the QEMU project it's based on) has baked in.

While I snagged a copy of Q already and installed Ubuntu in it, I'm still turning over every half-empty box in this new townhouse trying to find my Vista images. If you readers beat me to the punch, by all means, share your experience in the comments.

Remember all that hubbub about Mac geeks switching to Ubuntu? Well, Tim Bray (one of those geeks) is back on the Mac and he thinks that it beats Ubuntu, though just barely. He lists a number of interesting reasons for why one would choose OS X or some other Linux distro, all of which seem very reasonable. He has decided to keep his data in non-proprietary formats, which means that any OS can open up his stuff which, in turn, means that he can choose whatever OS he wants. We could all learn a little something from Tim's attitude towards computers.

[via Daring Fireball]

The web has been on fire the past few days with news of a presentation given at the BlackHat computer security conference featuring the compromising a MacBook Pro by executing very low-level code on the drivers of a wireless card. Whether or not the exploit presented actually counts as hacking of a Macintosh (they used a third party wireless card) is not at issue in this post. What I think is more important is the fact that these guys chose to demonstrate the vulnerability on a Mac, instead of a Windows or Linux machine, which are also vulnerable to the exploit. The presenters cited the "Mac userbase aura of smugness on security" as their reason for choosing a Mac as their guinea pig.

Some readers might attribute this negative attitude toward Mac users as one held only by uninformed Windows users and malicious hackers, but that is far from the case. Many very intelligent and highly respected members of the tech community feel the same way. Some of them even used to love Macs.

Before pointing any fingers and making any accusations about who lost their mind when, I think we need to take a step back and examine our behavior.

Conrad Quilty-Harper, a writer for Mac site TUAW.com, has decided to continue using his Macintosh computer, countering the recent trend for high profile Ubuntu switches

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Canterbury, Kent, United Kingdom (July 26th, 2006) - Conrad Quilty-Harper, a writer for the popular Macintosh blog, The Unofficial Apple Weblog, has announced a bold plan to continue using Mac OS X for the foreseeable future. According to Conrad, this move is partly in reaction to the recent trend for relatively high profile figures across the web to announce their plan to switch away from the Mac OS operating system to Linux-based operating systems, in particular Ubuntu.

On the subject of Ubuntu switchers Cory Doctorow, Mark Pilgrim and now Bryan O'Bryan, the owner of Mac modding and hacking site ResExcellence, Conrad said, "I just don't care." He also poses the question, "Since when did a person's computing platform of choice become a matter that must be announced to the public?"

As an example of his extraordinary resilience, Conrad says that he will continue to use the Mac until either his needs exceed the Mac operating system's capabilities, or he gets a life and decides that he didn't need a computer anyway. Conrad also states that he agrees with John Gruber's point of view regarding the Ubuntu switching trend. "I defend the right of others to switch to other operating systems, and even to point out the shortcomings of the OS they are switching away from, but please, can we stop the whole 'NEWSFLASH: random dude switches away from the Mac!' nonsense?"

Ubuntu is a Linux distro (that's distribution to you, n00b) that is almost easy enough for none techs to run on their desktops, but it isn't quite there yet. That's not enough to stop plenty of people from downloading and installing this most excellent OS on their machines (and I count myself amongst that number).

What if you love OS X's looks, but don't like the closed nature of Apple's software (I'm looking at you, Mark Pilgrim)? Why not make Ubuntu look like OS X? Lauri Taimila has a guide that can get you started on that.

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.

This is pretty cool. Ubuntu, in case you haven't heard of it, is a flavor of Linux whose tagline is: "Linux for Human Beings." In other words, it is meant to be easy to use by everybody. Some Ubuntu members are planning on building a .Mac-Like service for Ubuntu that would offer Webmail, Calendar, Address Book, News Reader, Public Homepage, and Blogging services along with a slew of other features for free. This project has hardly started, but if it succeeds nicely in Linux land, it probably wouldn't be that difficult to adapt to OS X, thanks to the open source underpinnings of both platforms.

A free version of .Mac that is scalable and usable by all? Sounds like heaven.

[via Digg]