I have now "played about" with installs of Ubuntu 5.10 preview, Kubuntu 5.10 preview and Edubuntu 5.10 preview on my Mac-mini and reached the following initial conclusions:
1. On a dual-boot system (Mac OS 10.4 and Edubuntu 5.10), which involves installing Mac OS X onto the 'front' of the hard-disk; the partitioner is downright confusing, especially with its requirement for an Apple Boot Loader partition: the average teacher will be completely "thrown" by this. 2. The sound on the Mac-mini now works (Ubuntu 5.10 single boot) and is just as good as under Mac OS X. 3. Proud of my Mac-mini sporting Ubuntu 5.10 I waltzed up the road with it (Apple advertise it as "portable") and got egg all over my face when I plugged it into a bog-standard 14 inch monitor (having installed it while connected to my IBM 17 inch VDU at home.) No GUI loading - "jolly" purple screen; not so good. (The Mac-mini is 'portable' insofar as one can carry it around and connect it to "any old monitor" when Mac OS X is installed.) 4. No GUI loads with Dual-boot Edubuntu after finishing install: after a hard reboot one is presented with a "jolly" purple screen. Became "totally fried" and decided to try a Kubuntu Dual-boot install: 5. Oh, Super: no "jolly" purple screen - because after the initial mac/linux choice screen Kubuntu turns off the monitor. I must be bonkers: decided to go for a Kubuntu 5.10 single-boot install: 6. At this point it became rather obvious that a Mac OS X / Ub/Kub/Edu dual-boot is not feasible (at least just now) - and I can see more people than just myself finding that a "bit disappointing". 7. I should make it clear at this point that I have successfully installed dual-boot systems with Ub/Kub 5.04 and MS Windows on a variety of mongrel PCs. I had a PC running a dual-boot with Linspire 5 on the second half of a partitioned disk and Kubuntu 5.04 on the first half: lovely (well, I don't really like Linspire to be honest). I had to change back to MS Windows because a bank and few other secure sites have "fixed" their sites so that they only work with Internet Explorer: why do I have a funny feeling they might be breaking International Law (not that that would come as a big surprise)? Of course, I have to keep fiddling with my Windows install as some bloke down the road keeps trying to piggy-back my internet connexion. 8. A full Kubuntu 5.10 also turned the monitor off. 9. So, I shall go back to a full Mac OS X install because: i. While Ubuntu 5.10 works as a single-boot install it "fixates" on a monitor so is not portable. ii. a dual-boot doesn' work. LATER, when I find the time, I shall try a dual-boot system on my BIG Mac G4 that sports 4 hard-disks - things might go rather better when Ubuntu has a real hard-disk (rather than part of a single hard-disk) to itself: this certainly worked with Yellow Dog PPC 4. This is not much help for the Mac-mini, unfortunately. I have an MA in Applied Linguistics from SUI, Carbondale (i.e. I'm a teacher) and an MSc in Computers and IT from the University of Abertay, Dundee (don't ask - Visual Basic and Microsoft Databases), and I started programming computers (Fortran 4) 30 years ago: so, in theory, at least, I should have no trouble with these installs whatsoever . . . In the case of Edubuntu, at least, nobody should have to play happy command-line games: something I thought I had seen the back of when I packed my BBC Master away in the attic and "migrated" (ha, ha) to a Macintosh LCII. I do, occasionally do the odd "make" and "make depend" when I get desperate (think about WINE!). Frankly, it's my BA in Philosophy that keeps me going! sincerely, Richmond Mathewson __________________________________________________ See Mathewson's software at: http://members.maclaunch.com/richmond/default.html _______________________________________ --------------------------------------------------------------- The Think Different Store http://www.thinkdifferentstore.com/ For All Your Mac Gear --------------------------------------------------------------- -- edubuntu-devel mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/edubuntu-devel
