linux options on a mac?

I have never owned a mac and am considering a macbook air i7. I really want to learn Linux as well and have several questions...

1) I know mac has a bash shell buried away somewhere. To learn linux can I also get the gnu utilities working on a mac (stuff like grep and awk that though now a part of the shell are commonly used in scripting)?

2) is it possible to dual boot linux? I have read that it is not officially supported in boot camp but not being supported and not being doable are very different. And if it is doable would it work just like when you get linux installed on a dual boot windows laptop?

3) if dual booting is not an option what are the best virtualization options? For example I used virtual box and vmware back in the day and hated the "tools" you had to install and update with new kernels. Is there a virtualization option that would allow for fast cloning and "just work" as opposed to having to use these tools? Btw it would be several instances of fedora or centos that I would like to run, pretty much with no gui. could this parallels program do this? and could the i7 4gb ram handle 2 linux non gui vm's running without bringing the air to a crawl?

Thank you very much I really want to get away from windows and all it's virus's and that mac book air i7 I see refurbed for $1439 is calling me.....

Thank you very much for listening

The best way to run Linux (any distro) on your Mac is by using virtualization. It's too easy to mess up OS X by installing Linux. And yes, although not supported, it's certainly doable. The Ubuntu forums have lots of good posts and detailed explanations on how to dual boot Ubuntu and OS X.

I've run both VirtualBox and VMWare and find them very easy to setup and use, and a lot easier to recover from mistakes. Also, I personally would not dual boot anything on a MBA due to limited memory and SSD space. Also keep in mind that the Air does not have an optical drive.

chscag is correct. Virtualized Linux using something like VirtualBox is the best way to go about it. It's free as well. You can install Linux utilities natively to OS X using such things as MacPorts. I'd advise against doing so until you play with Linux and OS X separately for a while.

bluerfoot said:

3) if dual booting is not an option what are the best virtualization options? For example I used virtual box and vmware back in the day and hated the "tools" you had to install and update with new kernels.

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For some distributions, this is no longer a problem. For instance, many distributions now have Virtualbox guest addition packages that you can install through the package manager. As such, they are updated when the kernel is.

Sounds like the PERFECT thread for you Vansmith!...not counting "poutine"!

- Nick

bluerfoot said:

1) I know mac has a bash shell buried away somewhere. To learn linux can I also get the gnu utilities working on a mac (stuff like grep and awk that though now a part of the shell are commonly used in scripting)?

Click to expand...

Applications > Utilities > Terminal.

grep and awk are part of the standard install, as is sed, etc. if you're looking to learn bash scripting, you're already good to go.

pigoo3 said:

Sounds like the PERFECT thread for you Vansmith!...not counting "poutine"!

- Nick

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I saw the title and naturally gravitated towards it.

XJ-linux said:

You can install Linux utilities natively to OS X using such things as MacPorts. I'd advise against doing so until you play with Linux and OS X separately for a while.

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I want to stress the importance of this point especially if you're new to *nix. Play around in the VM since problems there won't ruin your OS X install. This is one of the major benefits of VMs - they're easily created and destroyed without affecting the underlying OS.

Thanks guys I pulled the trigger on the i7 refurb, I appreciate all the advice.

Can anyone speak to parallels vs virtual box? Is there an advantage in ease of use or speed or integration with the mac? Since I plan on spending a lot of time building and knocking down virtual machines I am willing to pay for the best solution.

I use VBox and love it. You can't beat the cost and unless you have some demanding requirements, it will probably suit your needs. My advice: try VBox first (since it's free) and give the Parallels demo a try. Decide for yourself.

too bad about bootcamp, wonder if linux will every be supported like windows.

bluerfoot said:

too bad about bootcamp, wonder if linux will every be supported like windows.

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Don't hold your breath. There is nowhere near the same demand and I would guess that most people who want to run Linux natively are comfortable using 3rd party solutions.

bluerfoot said:

Thanks guys I pulled the trigger on the i7 refurb, I appreciate all the advice.

Can anyone speak to parallels vs virtual box? Is there an advantage in ease of use or speed or integration with the mac? Since I plan on spending a lot of time building and knocking down virtual machines I am willing to pay for the best solution.

Click to expand...

I work with Linux and Oracle databases and I'm using VirtualBox, which is an Oracle product. It's free and it's ****ed good. It's also easy to use!

I currently have 8 different Linux distros running in VMs for testing as well as Windows 7 and Windows XP VMs.

There was a time when my office looked like Dexter's laboratory with separate PCs for each distro. Now I'm using a single iMac for everything. Isn't progress a wonderful thing!

As someone has already said VMs are easily created and destroyed and they don't mess with your Mac OS.

One more thing, memory is cheap, get yourself upgraded to the full 16Gb then you'll have plenty to play with.

I am getting the air so I think I am stuck at 4gb correct?

Mason said:

I work with Linux and Oracle databases and I'm using VirtualBox, which is an Oracle product. It's free and it's ****ed good. It's also easy to use!

I currently have 8 different Linux distros running in VMs for testing as well as Windows 7 and Windows XP VMs.

There was a time when my office looked like Dexter's laboratory with separate PCs for each distro. Now I'm using a single iMac for everything. Isn't progress a wonderful thing!

As someone has already said VMs are easily created and destroyed and they don't mess with your Mac OS.

One more thing, memory is cheap, get yourself upgraded to the full 16Gb then you'll have plenty to play with.

Click to expand...

Yes you are stuck with 4 GB but that's really plenty - I've run Ubuntu just fine on as little as 1 GB of RAM on a MBA.

Cheers

bluerfoot said:

I am getting the air so I think I am stuck at 4gb correct?

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I really must read posts properly :0)

you can also use refit and set up the Mac for true dual booting. I currently have my mbp set up for triple boot using this method and everything works perfect

bluerfoot said:

I am getting the air so I think I am stuck at 4gb correct?

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4GB? MOAR than enough!

I'm currently typing this from an old netbook with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU & 501MB of DDR2 RAM (was 512MB, but it's so old 11MB have died), and it's running Ubuntu (with the 2D version of the Unity shell) smooth as silk (unlike the previously-installed Windows XP, which ran like molasses).

Linux is the Mohammed Ali of OSes; floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee!