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April 04, 2006
News that matters not
I am testing the ubuntu linux operating system. Rah rah rah! Yeah, so it worked. Big deal. Actually, the ubuntu CD booted up my computer just fine and configured everything automatically. It's a good, fast operating system. But I'm back with Windows now, because life without Windows sucks. I say this notwithstanding the prohibition in the Third Commandment of Herpetology professor Eric R. Pianka's Ten Commandments: "3. Thou Shalt NOT use an IBM PC."How are we to interpret this commandment? Is it intended as merely a prohibition on using any PC? Or is it a requirement that only a Mac may be used? Considering that the other commandments refer to Macs, I suspect the latter. But does using a Mac require using the Mac OS? What are the implications for counterculture types who might enjoy defying the genocidal professor and booting Linux on a Mac? Is there an implicit assumption that the world is divided into PCs and Macs, and, Linux being a PC OS, that such a thing would be impossible heresy? Actually it can be done. But you have to be a determined geek: Ubuntu Linux, Yellowdog Linux and Mac OS X, all on one PowerBook?There's a lot more, and it wouldn't be of interest to most of the readers here. Mac people tend to be very devoted to their Macs, so why would they want to go to all the trouble of repartitioning their hard drives in order to be able dual boot Linux alongside the Mac OS? However in case there is anyone who wants to experiment, the ubuntu people have a PowerPC live CD -- "for Apple Macintosh G3, G4, and G5 computers, including iBooks and PowerBooks." If you run the OS off the CD and you enjoy it, you can then give thought to repartitioning the hard drive and enjoy dual booting. And if you really want to test the limits of Professor Pianka's Third Commandment, you can now also run Windows on a Mac! Or multiboot Mac, Windows and Linux. (Another alternative here.) Apple is apparently doing its damnedest to make this physically impossible and there are legal issues, but it does appear that the Great Culture Wall between Macs and PCs has finally been breached. I wish politics was so easy. posted by Eric on 04.04.06 at 09:11 AM
Comments
I don't think it's true that Apple is deliberately blocking Windows installs - Apple is simply doing what Apple always does; going as far out on the technology curve as they can in order to score an advantage. Consider that the main obstacle to booting windows is that the Apple machines don't use the 23 year old IBM PC BIOS. As a programmer I can only say "Thank you, Lord!" - what they replaced it with is Intel's EFI bios which until now has only been used on high end servers. I've worked with it and it has features similar to what Apple was used to working with on the Open Firmware BIOS they used with the PPC chip. It has a built in shell which means you can actually do a fair amount of spelunking around in the system before the OS even boots (which I had to do, back in the day, so I could get Linux installed on an Itanium box). What I was hoping for, actually, was that Apple using EFI would be a nail in the PC BIOS coffin; but with Windows not supporting EFI for another year or more, BIOS is going to be with us for a long time to come. Mike Heinz · April 4, 2006 05:28 PM He will be glad to know that I do not run IBM PCs. I run generic "whitebox" PCs, nominally IBM compatible. Operating system is usually Windows; occasionally Linux. In my work, I use whatever laptop I'm issued (none has ever come from Big Blue). They of course run Windows; the sort of high-end engineering programs I get payed to run would not sell any other way. triticale · April 5, 2006 01:26 AM |
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Apple has said that it wasn't planning to support Windows on the "MacTel," but the company also said it wouldn't try to stop people from doing so. Still, some of the technical choices Apple has made in designing the new Intel-based Macs have made running Windows a challenge.
That's nothing like Apple trying to make it physically impossible. They haven't even tried to make it difficult - it just comes as a sideeffect of them not trying very hard to make it easy, either.
(Then again, I don't understand people who want to put linux on an OSX Mac anyway. OSX already comes with a perfectly solid unix subsystem and X server and all that. All they gain is, er, losing all the Apple software and excellent Aqua UI.)