Testing it last night and I found Ubuntu worked fine.

River

Mac is Linux/Unix friendly, but then you defeat half the purpose of paying more for their products.

The reason for Mac costing so much is it's a lifetime help desk you are also paying for. PC is more versatile, but also harder to set up on your own, and you wind up paying more for help when you need it. So really it boils down to your level of ability and comfort with the computer, what you plan to use it for, and your budget. I will probably be switching to a Mac+Linux set up on my next computer because hardware developers for PCs are going in too many different directions and I want things to work together.

PS: Mac OS is a Unix based OS, it's not 100% compatible though Apple has dropped hints of making their OS 100% Linux compatible in the future, these are only hints (less reliable than rumors) but it's enough to keep some of us Linux geek's hopes up.

KittenAB (imported) wrote: Sun May 15, 2011 7:41 pm Mac is Linux/Unix friendly, but then you defeat half the purpose of paying more for their products.

I will probably be switching to a Mac+Linux set up on my next computer because hardware developers for PCs are going in too many different directions and I want things to work together.

PS: Mac OS is a Unix based OS, it's not 100% compatible though Apple has dropped hints of making their OS 100% Linux compatible in the future, these are only hints (less reliable than rumors) but it's enough to keep some of us Linux geek's hopes up.

As far as I remember, Mac OS X is fully POSIX compatible, and that is what matters (most linux/unix programs would compile on it without changes or with minimal changes). IMO, by some commands it looks more like BSD system, than a Linux one.

As for being Linux friendly... May be, but, I'll better build a PC, from components known to work with Linux, it would be much much cheaper.

PS. I can not make myself pay for OS/non specialized software, so it is Linux for me.

fhunter wrote: Mon May 16, 2011 3:46 am As far as I remember, Mac OS X is fully POSIX compatible, and that is what matters (most linux/unix programs would compile on it without changes or with minimal changes). IMO, by some commands it looks more like BSD system, than a Linux one.

As for being Linux friendly... May be, but, I'll better build a PC, from components known to work with Linux, it would be much much cheaper.

PS. I can not make myself pay for OS/non specialized software, so it is Linux for me.

That's sort of what I meant by "Linux friendly". As for the PC being cheaper, that is true, again because you don't get the guarantee it will always work. But if you know what you're doing PCs can be great. The problem I am getting tired of is much of the PC hardware support is going in too many different directions, so I'm losing faith in the versatility of it. I just wish the PC hardware devs would work on some standards, though mostly this impacts the video cards, as a programmer I have seen issues in other areas to. It's rather tiring having to write several methods to maintain some cross computer compatibility.

My opinion of macs was changed to worse after one incident...

I was explaining linux installation process (all in virtual machine, hands on).

Then macbook ate a dvd with distribution. No eject, no reaction, only "you know, it wasn't working good lately" from the owner.

So - the problem was - no disk eject hole and a slot loading drive. After trying all kinds of things to get the disk out, there was a suggestion: "may be you open it up, and get a disk from the drive?" - "is in under warranty?" - "no" - "do you trust me, to go inside?" - "yes".

So an hour and about 100 screws later (okay it was not 100, but it felt close) we got to the drive, and took out the disk, then half an hour to reassemble all back.

It looks like macs are made to be hostile to anyone trying to get inside. And I am not sure we assembled everything back in proper order (but it worked).

I must agree in part, I hate working on lap tops, to small to many screws, to many tiny parts to break, hard to modify and all. My mid sized tower is just fine, 2 screws and I am in and they are thumb screws.

Lap tops are fine I guess, both my sons have one, both have fan stands under them to keep them from catching on fire, both have docking stations so they can take advantage of a real mouse and key board and both have big monitors so they keep the lid closed on there lap tops.

Q. why did they get a lap top if they do everything they can to make it look and feel like a workstation?

A. when they travel they can take there lap top with them, so far I am the only one that has done that and I borrowed one of theirs.

River