I've been using Xubuntu 8.04 “Hardy Heron” on my Macbook Pro Penryn (Early 2008 model) for several months now. Although there are few minor issues left unsolved, I'm quite happy with Xubuntu on my Mac because it simply works for me.However, these past days, I've been considering replacing Xubuntu with a distro that hopefully has a much better hardware support out-of-the-box and could unleash the optimum performance of my Macbook Pro. --Like perhaps a distro that can magically help increase the battery life while decrease the hardware temperature when running.
At the moment, I have a short list of Linux distros that could replace Xubuntu Hardy on my Mac:
Fedora 10
I dual-booted Fedora 9 and Xubuntu before but ultimately decided to just use Xubuntu since it performed a lot better than Fedora. Right now, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Fedora 10 will do wonders for my Mac.
Mepis 8.0
I have great memories using Mepis Linux, so I want to take the plunge and test the upcoming version.
Sabayon Linux 4
Putting this Gentoo-based distro on my Mac can be suicide since I’m probably on my own when I do this. But since danger is my middle name, I will most likely try Sabayon Linux on my Macbook Pro.
Xubuntu/Ubuntu 8.10
To avoid extreme danger, I’ve been thinking of just upgrading to "Intrepid Ibex" and see what happens.
As always, any suggestions are welcomed via comment.
To some Linux-on-mac users out there, I would like to ask this question: What Linux distro works best with your Mac?
22 comments:
What about openSUSE?
You should know that if you want the best OS from a "just works out of the box" you will be using Ubuntu in some form. Probably just best to upgrade.
If you are interested in testing out the latest technological innovations stable or not, use Fedora.
How about Linux Mint KDE? Most or nearly all of the stuff you like about Ubuntu, probably, but more things "just working" right out of the box.
Have you considered Pardus Linux?
Why is there no word about Yellow Dog? Best distro for Macs out there.
I just don't get why anybody would want Linux on a mac when you have OS X? No linux distro is even in the same league as OS X. You have obviously got way too much time on your hands. Computers are a tool for going stuff - which OS X accomplishes with ease - computers not a thing to do in their own right... that really is dull.
I have a MacBook Pro 17", and I am using Fedora 10.
All my hardware is recognized. Rock stable and really beautiful and flexible interface (using KDE 4.2 but gnome looks good too).
When you install (if you do), first, install all updates before complain because battery level is not recognized properly before updates.
See forums.fedoraforums.org for whatever problem you have.
HTH
Адриан - your an idiot. OSX doesn't have half the coolness that linux does.
On that note, I've personally got Mandriva 2008.1 running on my aluminum iMac. There area few issues with the sound that I had to work through but everything else works great. Even my bluetooth mouse and keyboard. I tried Ubuntu but it did not provide the best out of the box experience. If you really want a great desktop experience then OpenSuse, Fedora, Mandriva, possibly Ubuntu...
Good luck in your quest
I run Fedora 10 in Parallels on my iMac duo core. Very fast, everything works, never locks or crashes.
i use PCLinuxOS 2007, simply because it works for me, maybe you should try it or wait for the final 2009 version. my second choice would be Linux Mint xfce. third choice would be TinyMe, it's light weight and based on PCLinuxOS.
even though i don't have a mac, i'm a fan of it's hardware and textmate. as for OS X, and from trying it from my friend's mac, i find it hard to use, or maybe i'm just not used to it =)
Also, try Elive...it runs great on macbooks...from what I've heard, anyway :)
Chris
Ubuntu 8.10 (amd64) is awesome on a dual core imac. recognizes hardware, Ekiga runs with the built-in webcam. Haven't missed the mac apps I paid for. Lost far less money on them than the stock market.
Go for Intrepid!
Use virtualization and have your cake and eat it, too: With enough memory, you can run all of those distros that the same time. I've used Parallels, but their support for Ubuntu 8.10 hasn't impressed me (it takes a long time for them to add the tools). VirtualBox from Sun is GPL and works fine, though you can't control the number of processors the guest programs have access to.
9.04 Jaunty Alpha 3 - kubuntu with kde 4.2
Kubuntu Intrepid with KDE4.2 and NVIDIA proprietary driver (to use CUDA) runs without problems on a new Macbook Pro. Haven't tried the webcam, but everything else works perfectly-
Why is there no word about Yellow Dog? Best distro for Macs out there.
Yellow Dog is for PPC architecture. Macbook 2008 is intel based.
someone should point out that this is about one of those pc's with an apple logo,
other than fedora and yellow-dog, none of the distro's mentioned will work with ppc architecture.
I'm running Debian Lenny (not formally released yet, but still stable) on a PowerMac G5. It runs quite well. I haven't tried it on an Intel Mac, but I ran Kubuntu on a Mac Mini for a while, and it dealt with the hardware fairly well. I'm sure the situation is even better today.
Arch works great on Macbooks.
Is there somewhere on overview on which distros work on PPC and which in IntelMac?
I haven't dared to install Yellow Dog or Ubuntu PPC on my Powerbook, but I have a partition on an external Firewire drive set up for it. Is there any chance that this will work? Can you boot Linux from an external FireWire drive on a G4 Powerbook?
Mepis seems to be the best bet right now for Mac support. They even include an installation 'Assistant' for OS X within the ISO. I'm tempted to try it on my late 2008 MBP.
http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php/Mactel
I run Ubuntu now on a MacBook 2,1 and Debian Lenny on my PowerBook G3 Pismo from 2000. I think Ubuntu is very nice and updates faster. Debian is more for the older hardware. I also tried Mandrake in the past, it looks cool too.
If you are interested, I run a website dedicated to this:
http://applelinux.org / http://mac.linux.be
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