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Linux beats Windows to Intel iMac

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the because-you-can dept.

Ctrl+Alt+De1337 writes "The Mactel-Linux folks have now successfully booted Linux on a 17" Core Duo iMac. They used the elilo bootloader, a modified kernel, and a hacked vesafb to boot from a USB drive. No GUI pictures for now, just white text on a black background. The distro of choice was Gentoo, and instructions and patches are promised this weekend."

4 of 537 comments (clear)

  1. +1 obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I mean who didn't see this coming?

  2. Why do this? by hodet · · Score: 0, Redundant
    Not trying to flame here but I just don't get why everyone wants to install Linux and Windows on expensive Mac hardware. Now OS-X on commodity hardware, that's something to get excited about. This seems to fall in the "because you can" camp.

    I would like to hear from those who find this useful because I don't get the point yet.

  3. Re:i wasn't aware there was a competition by MrMista_B · · Score: 0, Redundant

    :i wasn't aware there was a competition

    Obligatory: You must be new here.

  4. Re:Also, this proves once and for all... by daveschroeder · · Score: 0, Redundant

    *Sigh*

    Someday, TPM may be *required* to boot mainstream commercial operating systems, like Windows and Mac OS X, and be *required* to use mainstream consumer services, like, say, online video and music stores, and so on.

    I'm not making any judgments about whether this is good or bad; just stating something that will likely happen.

    So, if you want to go out and build a non-TPM PC and use a TPM-free OS on it, great. More power to you. But the commercial-quality products and the desirable consumer services (Iike movie downloads and mechanisms for mitigating or eliminating threats) will probably start requiring trusted computing. And most ordinary human beings will be using systems so-equipped.

    TPM isn't any more or less inherently evil than any other technology. Yes, it is an element of control. And we've always had elements of control in societies based on rule of law and respect for property. There is always an authority in the form of the state that makes decisions about what is right and wrong, appropriate or no. Some may not appreciate or accept the balance, and that is their choice. Fundamentally, you can choose to ignore or circumvent such restrictions, or choose to avail yourself of products and technologies that aren't encumbered in this way.

    The fact of the matter is that Apple has no interest in preventing the booting of alternate OSes on Intel-based Macs, and this proves that the current Intel-based Macs have no such restriction. You can argue that this could change in the future, but it could ALWAYS change in the future, with or without "TPM" proper. Some technology or mechanism could ALWAYS prevent or disallow something on some future iteration of machine. (If you think Apple could do that with the current machines, you'd be wrong, and lack a basic understanding of how a TPM implementation works. Read up at https://www.trustedcomputinggroup.org/)