Why Run Linux On Macs?

Why Run Linux On Macs?
Apple has always had attractive and stylish hardware, but there are always some customers opting to run Linux instead of OS X on their Macs. But why? One might think that a polished commercial desktop offering designed for that specific lineup of computers might have less rough edges than a free open source one. Actually there's plenty of motivations to choose otherwise. A redditor asked about this trend and got some very interesting answers. What are your reasons?

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Why some Apple customers run Linux on Macbooks instead of OS X



In today's open source roundup: Why Apple's Macbooks are popular with some Linux users. Plus: Ars reviews Fedora 21, and should you use Linux or BSD?


Macbooks and Linux users

Apple has always had attractive and stylish hardware, but now it seems that some users are opting to run Linux instead of OS X on their Macbooks. A redditor asked about this trend and got some very interesting answers.

Tomtomgps asked why some people are putting Linux on their Macbooks:

More and more people at my UNI are running linux on Mac books. (Most of them have a single boot linux). Am I the only one seeing this trend ?

I also have switched from OSX to archlinux on my Air.

More at Reddit

Fellow redditors chimed in with their thoughts about this surprising trend:

Traxislyte: "1. Apple hardware is arguably good and shows thoughtful design.

2. It's a challenge to hack an Apple and put Linux on it, especially for the novice. People love challenges.

3. Lastly, these days, a lot of the challenges getting Linux running have been removed by installers, but, with an Apple, there's no safety net. So, running Linux on an Apple shows a bit of expertise."

Orschiro: "This is surprising to me given that Mac OS X is designed to fit perfectly with the sold hardware. What are the overall experiences of particularly battery life when running a Mac book with Linux?"

LDL2: "Why would you waste money in this manner?"

Bamcomics: "On my way out of college I was starting to see a few computers running Linux (almost entirely Ubuntu/Mint and one guy used Fedora). A few of these were in fact on Mac products. I think we're doing it guys, keep spreading the good word of Linux!"

Chisleu: "If there was a version of a distro for mac hardware, that worked like mac for mac-like keyboards, I would run it. Even though I would have to figure out how to do things like incremental backups to S3, my Time Capsule, and upgrade the kernel to support hot plugging of my thunderbolt."

Martin8412: "The development branch of Chrome for OS X is actually 64-bit now. Even though it is the development branch, it isn't actually unstable. There are a few issues here and there, but for normal use the issues are minimal."

More at Reddit

Linux.com has instructions on how to run Fedora on a Macbook Air:



GO HERE TO READ MORE

http://www.itworld.com/article/2871...rs-run-linux-on-macbooks-instead-of-os-x.html