Alternative to installing Windows on your Mac.

Joined
Oct 30, 2010
Messages
321
Reaction score
3
Points
18
Location
Blackburn, Lancs, North West England
Your Mac's Specs
Mac Mini Aluminium running at 2.4 GHz.
Hi guys,
There are plenty of threads talking about using various methods to get Windows operating on a Mac computer. They make a very interesting read. But here's the problem.
I want to install Ubuntu or Mint on to my Mac as a sort of dual boot system where you make your choice of which OS that you want to use at start-up.
Has anybody tried to do this before? Did it work?
Any info much appreciated.
Cheers,
Steve.
 

Raz0rEdge

Well-known member
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Jul 17, 2009
Messages
15,745
Reaction score
2,071
Points
113
Location
MA
Your Mac's Specs
2022 Mac Studio M1 Max, 2023 M2 MBA
Yes, it can be done and choosing between Ubuntu and OS X works the same as choosing between Windows and OS X..

However, unless you are doing some very special, there is little to no reason to run Ubuntu natively on the Mac. Use VirtualBox to create a free VM and run Ubuntu there..
 
OP
5
Joined
Oct 30, 2010
Messages
321
Reaction score
3
Points
18
Location
Blackburn, Lancs, North West England
Your Mac's Specs
Mac Mini Aluminium running at 2.4 GHz.
Cheers, raz0rEdge. I never even thought of doing that. I was just going off the idea of the Ubuntu disk making its own partition on a Windows PC.
So I am now downloading the VB software.
Thanks a load,
Steve.
 

Raz0rEdge

Well-known member
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Jul 17, 2009
Messages
15,745
Reaction score
2,071
Points
113
Location
MA
Your Mac's Specs
2022 Mac Studio M1 Max, 2023 M2 MBA
Even on a WIndows PC (like my work laptop right now), I use VirtualBox to run Linux for my work. The new software and machines are fast enough to give you the performance you need..

I'd only go native to Linux if I was going to blow away Windows entirely, which in the work environment, is very hard to do..
 
OP
5
Joined
Oct 30, 2010
Messages
321
Reaction score
3
Points
18
Location
Blackburn, Lancs, North West England
Your Mac's Specs
Mac Mini Aluminium running at 2.4 GHz.
Hold on there just a cotton-picking minute.
Are you telling me that this very same Virtual Box software could be loaded onto a Windows laptop (running Windows XP Pro SP3) and that would allow me to boot up my laptop into XP as normal and then open Linux from within Windows without having to re-boot and specify which OS I want to use and being limited to that OS until a re-boot.
Is that what you are telling me?
That would make my life a lot easier.
Cheers,
Steve.
 

chscag

Well-known member
Staff member
Admin
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
65,248
Reaction score
1,833
Points
113
Location
Keller, Texas
Your Mac's Specs
2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
The Windows version of VirtualBox will do just that.... allow you to run Linux in a VM from your Windows machine without rebooting.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top