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Installing Fedora Core 4 on the Mac mini
Tammy Fox writes "The Mac mini is all the rave. Discover how to install the soon-to-be-released Fedora Core 4 on this tiny desktop appliance, including new features in Fedora Core 4 to support the new hardware."
...Linux on Mac mini (or any Mac) won't support any built-in wireless hardware. I don't have any wireless hardware on my mini, but I can see that being important.
If a person wants a GUI-less Mac, it is possible to run OS X without the GUI as a text-only BSD variant. I forgot where I found the doc, I think you comment out one command in a script. I think that doc might be at the osxfaq site.
I can write over OSX, the put on Fedora and then start the endless road into making Gnome behave and look like OSX...which I just wrote over!
"Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
The advantage of the Mini is that it's the cheapest computer you can run OSX on...but this is a moot point if you're just going to write over it and install Linux.
"Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
Here's a related story from the 11th on an IBM article with instructions on installing Yellow Dog on an mini.
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They're reasonably powerful systems with very low power consumption: the entire system (minus display) usually stays under 20W. Even the Pentium-M consumes much more on the desktop (granted, they're also much faster). The most comparable competition in terms of power consumption are Via Mini-ITX systems, which tend to be much slower.
The form factor itself is a major selling point. The thing is *tiny*.
Second, it is very low on power usage, similarly to G4 laptops (as it shares much of the architecture).
Thirdly -- obviously this goes away when you (only) put Linux on it -- it's the cheapest available machine that runs OS X.
Generally, you'll have a hard time finding a competitive machine at this price with similar dimensions.
Apple hardware isn't as much of a moving target as PC hardware is, so there are fewer hardware compatibility issues to deal with. Also, not too many pieces of PC hardware at that price point have Firewire 400 and DVI.
This seems like a semi-on-topic question. Why would I want to install Red Hat on my Mac? This isn't meant to be a troll, I like Linux, I use Debian Sarge and Ubuntu Hoary on retired x86 boxes at work. I just would love to know if anyone is running Linux on their Mac - what are you using it for? Why can't I use OS X to do it?
MacBook Pro. Worst name since the Bicycle
Everything is much snappier on PPC.
It must be because it uses RISC instead of CISC.
English is easier said than done.
Why forsake Mac OS X on a Mac, well think about non-desktop applications. For example the Navy using Yellow Dog Linux and Mac hardware for a Sonar application: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/7789.
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For a somewhat detailed list of who is using Yellow Dog Linux see the links on http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/realworld/showc
... on newer hardware, especially since you can't get airport extreme to work, there's little(not no, just little) reason to run linux over os x
"Little" may not be as small as some readers are thinking. Again, think non-desktop applications. For example the mini is small, quiet, and could make a good OpenBSD firewall. Do you recall all the various articles around here where people were spending lots of money to build quiet PCs for firewalls, lightweight home servers, etc? I think the base mini would be an attractive alternative. If my current firewall dies I'd consider the base mini over my an old celeron or 604e. Similar story with my home file server. It only receives lightweight use, transferring the odd file, backing up files, etc. The mini's slow hard drive wouldn't bother me. I'm currently using a mini with 10.4 for email, web, and lightweight development. I expect it will someday become my home firewall or server.
Hmm, sounds like an interesting story... Or at least it was, the first two times Slashdot wrote it up.
For real, this story isn't even a dupe-- it's a TRUPE!!!
Oh boy, I get to read all the posters who say, "But why install linux on a Mac?" again. It sure was interesting the first two times, so this time, I know it'll be awesome for sure.
Seriously, I can understand some dupes popping up, when two editors post links to the same story that seems interesting, but this isn't even interesting. A Mac Mini is just a normal Mac. It's no surprise that you can put Linux on it. You can put Linux on any Mac. Hell, you can put Linux on an iPod. As for those who are obsessed with asking "why," why should we install Linux on anything? Because we can! That's good enough, isn't it? This story isn't News, it's only barely for Nerds, and it definitely doesn't Matter, when you consider that anyone who wants to put Linux on their Mac Mini already did so back when they were released.
Before anyone points out the laptop hard drive, I have 512MB of RAM in the machine, and most of that is used as disk cache - the disk itself spends a lot of its time spun down.
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RISC is good