On 01/06/2011, at 11:15 AM, Jam wrote: > G'day > It's a *looooong* story, I'm considering getting one of the new imacs to run > linux (some of the howtos say dual boot OSX in case you need to update the > firmware)
True > So > Has anybody done it, what experiences? Not personally, but here's what I've seen first hand....(read on) > I want to wake on lan. BIOS (EFI) available enough to do that? The EFI does support WoL. Whether that flies in Linux land...dunno. The NIC is usually a Broadcom of some sort (on this Macbook Pro it's reporting a BCM5701). AFAIK Linux should drive this with all it's features just fine. > I want to build an run myth tv. Does the graphics support xv etc to get a > reasonable picture? The new Macs run pretty standard (and not bleeding edge) AMD/ATi or nVidia GPUs. Any modern distro that supports those manufacturers should handle what you want to throw at them. > If I really *have* *to* upgrade firmware (in the unlikely event of > depressurization ....) why would I not install OSX back for that? You can boot OSX from a USB drive if you really have to. Install OSX on an external drive and then if you need to do a firmware update, boot from USB (GIYF) and voila. You're in OSX-land :) > Does OSX work with a MS optical mouse (I've got baby duck when it comes to > the > apple mouse) Yes. So does my wireless Logitech trackball which uses one of those fangled 2.4GHz mini-dongle-thingys. > I'll use rj45 not wireless, but It'd be nice to know if that was recognised. Again, my Macbook Pro is reporting that the inbuilt Airport Extreme (like the regular Airport, only does bungee jumping and street luge) is actually a Broadcom BCM43xx. Not sure what Linux's wifi support for them is like. > Finally running OSX in a VM looks as though it utterley complies with the > license. (I have done it: a working vbox OSX 10.6 (5?6?latest) running on my > desktop) Every new Mac comes with a fully licensed copy of OSX. If you can get it to boot on a Commodore 64, you're still complying with the license :) > BTW the hardware is rather nice, and the AU apple shop are really > bend-over-backwards helpfull) The hardware is all top-shelf stuff and really well assembled. Heck, I had a Macbook Pro battery go "futz" 1 week out of warranty and Apple replaced it, no questions asked. Another friend had a screen fail in a really spectacular way, again just out of warranty, and Apple replaced his entire iMac!! Despite all their evil, Apple really do look after their customers from hardware perspective in my experience. Good luck with you Mac-o-Linux :) Cheers, James
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