For quite some time, I was way into running Linux on my Mac. I was one of the earliest users of LinuxPPC, the first major distribution of Linux for PowerPC processors. I ran it on my SuperMac Power Mac clone, since Apple had discontinued support for Mac OS on clones in the late 1990’s. I thought it was really cool, and I spent lots of time tinkering with the software, compiling my kernels, testing out device drivers, etc. While that was all cool and extremely geeky fun, there was still that naggy feeling that things didn’t just work. I longed to go back to the Mac OS, where I could run the programs I wanted to, plug things in and expect them to work, and just be happy without needing to mess around with my computer. When Mac OS X became publicly available, I installed it on my Macs, and I haven’t looked back since.
However, there are still those who prefer to run Linux on their Mac hardware. They enjoy the extra time spent tinkering with their kernels, configuring the system just the way they want. A new article on O’Reilly’s ***MacDevCenter|http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/11/30/linux.html*** covers some of the ground of those folks who still choose to use Linux on their Macs. More power to them. I’d just rather spend my time doing other things.
That’s pretty much why I haven’t used Linux more. You can always use Terminal.app and pretend you are running Linux.
Not only that, but if you fire up X11 with an alternate desktop environment, say, GNOME, in root window mode… you can look just like you are using Linux. It’s amazing how things change. At conferences, it was always cool to have Linux on a x86 laptop. Then, for a short time, it was cool to have Linux on a Mac laptop. Now, Mac OS X on a Mac Laptop is all the rage.