Article:		Why Install Linux on Your Mac?
Subject:		Same reason I installed Linux on x86
Date:		2004-12-01 13:55:17
From:		nathanh
I exclusively run LinuxPPC (a Debian and Ubuntu hybrid) on my PowerBook G4 1GHz. No dual boot. I deleted MacOS X 10.3 the same day I received the PowerBook. I did so for the same reasons I ran Linux on a 386 back in 1992. Freedom. Before Linux I was using various prorietary UNIX. Several times I'd been burnt by vendors going bankrupt or purposefully dropping support for their software to force an upgrade. I was unable to share software with my friends due to copyright law. I had lost my patience dealing with license daemons, license keys, copy prevention schemes, etc. Often I would run up against a trivial bug in the software that the vendor refused to fix, even though I knew I could easily fix the bug myself. Inbetween fighting with the software and fighting with the stubborn vendors, computing simply wasn't any fun. So when Linux came along I jumped ship almost immediately. In 1992 it was fairly inferior to what I already had from the proprietary UNIX. The networking was poor. There was no GUI with the first versions of Linux I used. There were bugs everywhere. But I knew then as I know now that those problems are trivial compared to the non-technical problems with proprietary software. MacOS X might be all-singing and all-dancing. It might have the world's greatest GUI and the best UNIX underneath. But am I tempted to switch? No! Because I know from experience that the sweet exterior hides the bitter core of proprietary software. I have no desire to return to those horrible days of licensing and forced upgrades. I would rather do without the features than be hobbled by my software and beholden to a company. Fortunately Linux does everything I want. I can surf the web. I can watch movies. I can listen to songs. I can write email. I can use a word processor. It might do all those things with only 80% of the slick technical efficiency of MacOS X. It might be only 50%. Or only 10%. The exact percentage doesn't matter because whatever amount it is, it's sufficient for my needs. The important feature of Linux is that it isn't proprietary, In my experience that makes Linux infinitely more valuable than MacOS X.

Showing messages 1 through 2 of 2.

• Same reason I installed Linux on x86
  2005-01-04 21:52:53  SeaFORTH_for_OSX [Reply | View]
  
  
  Many posts here state in summary what I believe, and that is to get off the nipple of the recurring revenue companies. Being hooked into something like you do with OSX or Windows, or whatever is simply shameful. Not because the companies try for the easy buck, but because people lack the knowledge, time, inclination to find out what is available as an alternative. Its about the human spirit, about people being more (with possibly less?).
  
  I use Linux and OSX on Apple/PPC hardware. I use both because they both offer me income. I enjoy them both, Linux for its power and speed, and OSX for its ease of use, and MacPPC hardware solutions so I can run both. Major revisions or strippings of the GUI on either system is meaningless to me and thus discountable, although I can see the value for others. I like to use and make tools for both systems, and then share and sell my services of support if others. In all, it comes down to one thing for me with hardware and software of any type...
  
  "The right tool for the right job, for the right price"
  
  Sometimes that price is freedom, sometimes that price is a check, and sometimes that price is a good feeling about doing the right thing (tm)... :)
  
  I have worked for IBM, Apple, NeXT and Be, working at all levels of code, and sometimes with hardware. In 1997 I became disinfranchised with business and computers, left the industry and retired. With OSX where it is today I've reentered the programming field using mostly OSX because it has matured to the point again of usability. The inexpensive 'dog' eMac offering online, a few contract jobs to pay for it, and the fun of coding has pulled me back to the Mac a place I SWORE I would never come back. PPC Linux makes it all that much more exciting, and justifiable. Bit twiddling has been so much fun since the 6502s, with all the emulators I have on OSX and Linux, the PPC processor to play with in porting FORTH and making my SeaFORTH. I can't imagine why anyone would sit for 10-14 hours a day porting, coding new, or documenting any functionality on any machine of any type for those hours if s/he didn't enjoy it immensely. Quality coding is art, and the art of coding should be fun. Doh!

• Same reason I installed Linux on x86
  2004-12-01 15:11:22  Giles Turnbull | [Reply | View]
  
  
  Thanks for that, nathanh. That's just the kind of plain-spoken answer to the original question that I was hoping to hear!