Re: debian on a mac?
On Wed, 15 Oct 2003 at 22:46 GMT, Shyamal Prasad penned:
>
> Here is another take on your idea: We (my wife and I) own two Mac's -
> a G4 desktop, and a 15" Powerbook. I use a Debian x86 desktop most of
> the time, my wife uses the Macs most of the time.
>
> I never got around to installing any dual boot system on the Macs,
> though originally I had planned on it. I simply use OS X when I use
> them. You can install XFree86 off Apple's web site, the developer
> tools (gcc and friends) are a free download, and the fink project
> (hosted on sourceforge) uses a dpkg based system to port software to
> OS X (fink is not Debian, but you get apt-get, dselect etc. and a
> bunch of packages). The core OS X (Darwin) OS is a basic Unix system
> and comes with most of the utilities you'd expect.
This is the answer to the question I wasn't gutsy enough to ask on a
debian list =P
I do love how rapidly debian releases security updates to their packages
-- this is one area where I suspect that Apple isn't as industrious as
debian? Don't know about the fink maintainers ...
Also, I hate to be a cheapskate, but my understanding is that using OS X
involves paying for a mondo patch every year or so. Apparently the
features in the patch are generally worth every penny, but it's still
money that could be going elsewhere.
Then of course there's the not-open-ness of the Apple software ... I
can't claim to be a true open-source snob; I definitely use
closed-source apps when necessary. But it is definitely a factor, as
I'd like to move away from closed-source stuff (when it's not too
painful, anyway).
> Right now I'm writing this on a Mac G4 desktop which I am using to ssh
> into my Debian Linux box with X Forwarding - so I am using the Mac
> simply as an X Terminal. That is because my wife is playing PySol on
> the Debian box with it's 21 inch monitor and three button mouse ;-)
>
> I'd suggest you try OS X if you buy a Mac before you give up and go to
> Debian or some other Linux distribution. OS X is a Unix (it even comes
> with emacs, vi and ed out of the box), but just a little wierd.
>
If I can find vim for it, that may be a possibility.
--
monique
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