FYI: Many kinds of PC hardware can support Mac OS X -- please google search "Hackintosh". You can build a $300 deskside "Hackintosh" using "state of the shelf" PC hardware, and it boots Mac OS X just fine. My boss does this, and is now editing his kid's videos using all the wonderful Mac OS X video apps.
IMHO, being an experienced sysadmin of all kinds of Unixen and Windows systems, Mac OS X is the best combination of usable, scriptable, and open software available. On Oct 2, 2009, at 6:10 AM, Mark Deardorff wrote: > Thanks everyone. Sorry Oleg, I have already invested in PC hardware > and > cannot afford the Mac iron. I have the Ubuntu disk and will boot > from it to > do some partition work before I install it. > > Mark > > On Fri, Oct 2, 2009 at 3:36 AM, David Mitchell > <[email protected]>wrote: > >> Mark, I have tried a variety of variety of Linux distributions over >> the >> years, >> including OpenSUSE, Ubuntu and RedHat. I first settled on RedHat >> because >> it was >> the only one at the time that I could get to support Sharp APL for >> Unix, >> SAX. >> >> Later, I switched to SUSE and then OpenSUSE as they were the only >> ones I >> could >> get to easily work on the hardware I was running. >> >> As Alex noted, I have discovered that the decision about which >> Linux to >> install >> is often driven by hardware support. The most iffy items I have >> found are >> video >> drivers, wireless support, audio cards and laptop support in general. >> >> Given the low cost of gigabytes these days, my suggestion would be >> to set >> up a >> multi-partition, multi-boot system with as many versions of Linux >> and IDE's >> as >> you are interested in evaluating. I have found that the installers >> for the >> new >> Linux distributions are much simpler and more bullet proof than in >> prior >> years. >> >> You could even play around with X86 Solaris. >> >> I have had far better luck with Linux on desktops than with laptops. >> >> I regret to say it helps me appreciate one of Microsoft's major >> achievements: >> decent support out of the box for a vast assortment of hardware. >> By it's >> nature, Linux will usually lag in its hardware support. I find >> Linux tends >> to >> run first time on systems that are older than a year or three. >> Running >> Linux on >> state of the art hardware often required that I get into beta >> drivers or >> use odd >> approaches like ndiswrappers. Often, I couldn't get one >> distribution or >> another >> to work satisfactorily at all on a particular hardware >> configuration due to >> some >> quirk of the hardware support. >> >> At the moment, I find OpenSUSE works for my needs. I am using it >> with SAX, >> J >> and an assortment of compilers. I have used it to work with the >> Fortran >> routines from Netlib and other web libraries. As an old-timer, I >> am using >> the >> tools directly, rather than via an IDE. >> >> I was pleasantly surprised when OpenSUSE ran first time on my new >> notebook. >> It >> was a low-end notebook, with the most generic hardware. >> >> Good luck, >> -- >> David Mitchell >> >> Mark Deardorff wrote: >>> Sorry for butting in here but I have a question you can probably >>> answer >> for >>> me. What is a better installation of UNIX for software development >>> and >>> general scientific and math computing? OpenSUSE, Ubuntu, Redhat or >>> some >>> other? I am a Windows(ze) 7 user (well, as of 10/22/09) and want >>> to learn >>> Linux (used to be a Unix user). What will be better for me? I am >>> running >> an >>> AMD Phenom 64 which is a quad core box. Thanks, somuch, in >>> advance. (Alo >>> what is a good IDE?) >>> >>> On Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 3:38 AM, David Mitchell <[email protected] >>> wrote: >>> >>>> I had a somewhat different experience with OpenSUSE 64 11.1. >>>> >>>> When the hard drive on my Gateway MT6456 notebook died a few >>>> months ago, >> I >>>> replaced it with one twice as large. I configured it as dual >>>> boot with >>>> Vista 32 >>>> on 1/2 of the drive and OpenSUSE 64 11.1 on the other 1/2. >>>> >>>> I used the the current NVIDIA support at the time via YAST and it >>>> worked >>>> first >>>> time for me after the download and install. >>>> >>>> I don't use the other three features that didn't work for you. >>>> -- >>>> David Mitchell >>>> >>>> Alex Rufon wrote: >>>>> Well, although I got J to work with OpenSUSE on my Lenovo >>>>> T61 ... I had >>>> to give up on it after reinstalling the OS 3 times and switched >>>> to the >> 64bit >>>> Ubuntu 9. I should have done that in the first place instead of >>>> wasting >> 2 >>>> days. >>>>> Here are some of the major problems which made me back away from >>>> OpenSUSE. >>>>> 1. NVIDIA driver installation - your system will refuse to boot >>>>> 2. NTFS write mode support - you really have to jump through >>>>> hoops just >>>> to write to NTFS partitions >>>>> 3. Support for Wireless USB network - just doesn't work. >>>>> 4. Support for 3G Network - intermittent >>>>> >>>>> When I switch to Ubuntu this morining ... everything worked >>>>> without >> even >>>> opening the console. Just relied on wizards for the configuration >>>> and no >>>> more problems. >>>>> r/Alex >>>>> ________________________________________ >>>>> From: [email protected] [general- >>>>> [email protected]] On >>>> Behalf Of bill lam [[email protected]] >>>>> Sent: Monday, September 28, 2009 10:24 PM >>>>> To: [email protected] >>>>> Subject: Re: [Jgeneral] J64 on OpenSUSE 11.1 64bit OS (WAS: RE: >>>>> [Jbeta] >>>> 602 ebeta available for linux32 and linux64) >>>>> nvidia driver is troublesome enough and I gave up. Now I just >>>>> vesa >>>>> driver. >>>>> >>>>> You are welcome to post a record of how to fix the nvidia driver >>>>> (may >>>>> be in jchat). >>>>> >>>>> On Mon, 28 Sep 2009, Alex Rufon wrote: >>>>>> Thanks Bill. >>>>>> >>>>>> I'll just edit the jwd script. Unfortunately, I broke my system >>>>>> after trying to install the NVIDIA driver (which for some reason >>>>>> installed a new broken kernel ... why?). Now X won't start. >>>>>> Grrrrrrrr. >>>>>> >>>>>> I'm going to reinstall and try it again ... if I don't comment on >>>>>> this, everything is fine. ;) >>>>> -- >>>>> regards, >>>>> ==================================================== >>>>> GPG key 1024D/4434BAB3 2008-08-24 >>>>> gpg --keyserver subkeys.pgp.net --recv-keys 4434BAB3 >>>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>>> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm >>>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>>> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm >>>>> >>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm >>>> >>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm >>> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/ >> forums.htm >> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
