Hi

[JonnyFrond]

Hi guys,

New here and as I have had some good response to a couple of my posts, I deem this a splendid and friendly forum where I hope to learn much from you guys and in return impart some knowledge when I feel I have some to impart.

I went back to uni last year to study Mechatronics, and everything is pointing me towards programming embedded software now even though I am new to programming, I am finding it interesting.

Linux has become a natural progression though, I am struggling to get a linux box myself right now. Ah, My mac will do for now.

Well hello guys, and have a good weekend.

Jonny

[johnbmcc6063]

Hey there Jonny.
I am new here as well, and Linux is brand new to me.

Have you ever considered dual booting your mac with both Mac OS and a linux distro?

[JonnyFrond]

Hey John,

Pleased to meet you.

Yes I had considered that, though to be honest with you, although I do love my mac to bits, I am not enamored with Apple hardware.

Also you have to remember that OSX is linux anyway, the distro is Darwin I understand, so it would just look like a different operating system, a bit like putting on a different t shirt for the day. I want to delve deeper than that without jeopardizing my day to day computer and my sanity.

Regards

Jonny

[johnbmcc6063]

Wow, I wasn't aware mac OSX was linux!
I wonder if you can just keep your mac os, and just have the option of switching desktop environments. For instance, no need to dual boot ubuntu and kubuntu, when you can just download the alternate desktop environment and just choose which one to work with at the login screen. I have almost zero knowledge of Apple but its a thought.

If your worried about jeapardizing your day to day computer, my suggestion if your looking for a change is just back up all personal data remotely, then experiment with different distros.

Starting about 2 weeks ago, I backed up all my data, and just went at it experimenting with wipeing windows and installing Linux, dual booting, even triple booting different distros. Only a few days ago did I finally settle on a single OS (Linux Mint Julia KDE), and upload all my personal data back to the computer. I really wanted Ubuntu Studio, but I just found it a mess trying to install, never could get it to work. Maybe something to do with the site only offering alternate .iso files that may not be compatable with my architecture .

London, eh? Hope the riots aren't too out of control!

[elija]

MacOS is actually BSD, which means that it is Unix not Linux, although they are very, very similar.

BSD has a much more permissive licence even than the GPL. BSD's licence can be summed up as "do what you want" whereas Linux's is basically "do what you want but you must freely share what you do"

Much more info (with some eye-bleeding colour choices)

Hope you wern't affected too badly by the riots, they didn't make it down to the arse end of Kent.

[JonnyFrond]

Hmmm... they did tell me the world gets bigger when you look outwards.

[BrianMicek]

Hi,
I can elaborate a bit on things if anyone is interested.

I suppose what I'm about to say is subject to self bias, but I really believe Linux is much more advanced than any other operating system including the BSD kernels. I don't work with BSD, but it was known for its stability and extreme security. Linux is both very secure and very stable however.

As far as Mac goes, this is also subject to some of my personal bias so please bear with me. It appears Apple observed open source software could greatly improve all facets of their operating system and chose to use it. If they would have chosen to use Linux, their code could be interpreted as a derived work of Linux. If their code is a derived work, they would be forced to release their code to the public. Their only option if they wanted to use open source code was to avoid the GPL license and stick with something less restrictive hence their BSD kernel. I'm not sure how much Apple contributes to open source to be honest, but I tend to get angry at their approach because they are leveraging from other's free hard work. I think its a better solution than Windows, but I think Linux offers a lot more.

I also seem to be the only one concerned about the suicides in Apple's China plants ... if your a humanitarian, you might want to avoid Apple.

[MASONTX]

Welcome to the forum.

[Mudgen]

I repeat the welcome here.

With deference, and even homage, to Elija, OSX is not actually BSD, but based on the Mach kernel, as I understand it. It shares a lot with BSD, and has a BSD overlay at the command line level for ease of use to those familiar with that environment. It helps me a lot with supporting my wife's Macs. She's in advertising, where there's a stronghold of business users.

[JonnyFrond]

Brian, I am liking your way of thinking, this is how things seem to appear to me.

Although I prefer Macs to windows machines, I am not a big fan of apple in general, but I do have two macbook pros and until I started to look at linux, what I did notice is that they both run infinitely faster than the pc's I have had in the past with all it's heavy antivirus and the like. I am sure once I have successfully built my dream Linux box out of stickyback plastic and old toilet rolls, I will never go back. It's just gonna take me time to learn, I am an old dog, but I have recently learned how to shake a paw.

As for the humanitarian thing, unfortunately, it is not possible to be ethical when dealing with any corporate company and I suffer much in internal conflict of wanting the latest tech v's the ethics behind it. Boycotting does not work for me, if I were to boycott everything I did not agree with, I feel the restrictions on my everyday life would out weight my potential to put out into the world and I value creativity in the human spirit above all.

Regards

Jonny