Open Sourcing your Macs!

An Introduction to running GNU/Linux on your Apple Macintosh

Prepared by Colin Charles

byte@aeon.com.my

http://www.bytebot.net/

About the speaker

Apple developer – OpenOffice.org port

Linux developer – Fedora, GNOME Desktop, OpenOffice.org

Trainer – Linux & OpenOffice.org related courses; beginner to advanced

Serve on several open source SIGs

Created roll-outs for 100,000 Linux desktops to a nation of end-users

What is this open source?

Free as in freedom (not beer)

Source code availability

freedom therefore to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software

This isn't freeware

It might be free, but source needn't be provided

Not shareware either

www.opensource.org

What is its impact today

Most of the Internet run on OSS

Apple has made use of OSS too

Apple X11, Darwin kernel, Xcode compiling tools, etc...

Many open source tools are available via fink/DarwinPorts

So why run Linux instead of OS X?

What is a kernel?

It is the core of the

operating system

providing access to

all its devices and

allowing software to

do so too

Why Linux?

Different operating system

Fun to tinker with

Choice

Performance improvements

Older Macs can't run OS X conveniently

Macs with less RAM benefit

Software behind the culture is FREE

Never have to buy shareware again!

Support, websites, user groups, etc...

What are distributions?

Linux is just a kernel

Distributions also include custom packages around it; this makes it a complete, full-featured OS

Most users like: Yellow Dog Linux / Fedora Core

Others prefer: Debian GNU/Linux, Gentoo, SuSE, Mandrake

Yellow Dog Linux (YDL)

Subscription-based early releases

Has support options

Sells Linux pre-installed on Macs

Very user-friendly

New release to be based on Fedora Core 2

Fully graphical installer

Fedora Core (FC)

Red Hat sponsored

FREE

No support

Generally more updated (with the latest software) than all the others

The others...

SuSE is friendly – but there are no free installable versions (net install only)

Mandrake is free, user-friendly, but 3rd party software is lacking

Debian is preferred by a lot of advanced users

Has relatively new software

Harder to configure from the start

Gentoo requires a lot of CPU time!

But I only have one Mac!

That's fine – you can dual-boot

like running OS 9 (Classic), OS X and Linux

just requires some free hard disk space

YDL/FC, SuSE/Mandrake auto-partition for you

Debian/Gentoo involve text-based partitions

YDL 3 from the Net can't deal with HFS+

Access to the “fixed” (payed for) ISOs help

Installation...

It's as simple as inserting the CD into your drive and booting from the CDROM

Holding down the 'C' key enables this

Debian requires more work:

http://people.debian.org/~branden/ibook/

Gentoo as well:

http://www.desertsol.com/~kevin/ppc/

Anaconda... so friendly!

Anaconda – graphical installer

Fully help-prompted, and GUI (Back/Next) driven

Help so you always know what you're doing

Constant prompting once

options are chosen, for a

logical progression

Display Managers

Default for Fedora

Spatial windows

Default for YDL

Requires configuring

GNOME

KDE

Software Updates

Provided till the next release cycle

Provided for at least 2 years

Double-click

notification

icon to

update

100% Free Office Suite

Full-featured free cross-platform office suite

Writer (word processor)

Calc (spreadsheet)

Impress (presentations)

100% Free Graphics Editor

GIMP, currently at version 2 is touted as the Photoshop replacement

Slideshow views (GQView)

Digital camera tool

Internet software

Browsers are aplenty:

Safari – Konqueror based

Mozilla, Epiphany

E-Mail clients:

Evolution, Thunderbird

Instant Messaging:

GAIM, X-Chat

Getting some Tunes going

Rhythmbox – iTunes replacement

Video

Playback/editing can be performed

Totem

handles

a lot of

video by

default

in Fedora

Wait, I miss an OS X app!

Emulation!

Setup Mac-on-Linux, and run OS X within a window in Linux!

QEmu exists too...

Hardware Support

Or lack of it...

Newer iBook/Powerbook G4's:

video out, Airport Extreme

Newer iBook G3's lack video out

iMac's/eMac's/PowerMacs/G5's have full support

Modem requires a paid-for-wrapper (~USD$20)

LiveCD

Gentoo (www.gentoo.org) Linux has a 1CD-based image for a Linux Live-CD

Boots off the CD drive, and loads Linux without installing it – try it first

Excellent hardware detection

There's Knoppix PPC, but Gentoo is more established and preferred

Useful Resources

http://www.yellowdoglinux.com/

http://www.bytebot.net/geekdocs/ibook/fedorappc.html

http://www.yellowdoglinux.com/support/hardware/breakdown/index.php

Various mailing lists at http://lists.ydl.net/, including the fedora-ppc one for help, discussion, etc...

IRC: irc.freenode.net, #fedora-ppc/#yellowdog

Thank You!

Colin Charles

byte@aeon.com.my

http://www.bytebot.net/

2004-06-05T10:42:36