Why Run Linux On Macs?

jones_supa writes Apple has always had attractive and stylish hardware, but there are always some customers opting to run Linux instead of OS X on their Macs. But why? One might think that a polished commercial desktop offering designed for that specific lineup of computers might have less rough edges than a free open source one. Actually there's plenty of motivations to choose otherwise. A redditor asked about this trend and got some very interesting answers. What are your reasons?

Comments

a better question

[kuzb]

Why run a mac at all if your goal is to use Linux? PCs are a ton cheaper and in most cases just as good.

Re:a better question

[C3c6e6]

and in most cases just as good.

Well, that's where I respectfully disagree! PCs might be cheaper but I have yet to find a PC that is "just as good" as a Mac, hardware-wise. For instance, I find the trackpads on Macs highly superior than those on PCs. Also, display quality is unparalleled, IMHO

Re:a better question

[Kjella]

More like there's a ton of markets that Apple choose not to compete in and if you want to force a square peg into a round hole it gets real expensive. Like not offering a machine with drive bays, if you want more than one drive you should buy some wildly expensive Thunderbolt 2 enclosure. Or offering any cheap solutions, no cheap HDDs, no cheap screens, it's all high end or not at all. But their laptops are pretty much the same as everybody else's, the form factor hasn't allowed them to turn it into an art project. If I was in the market for a $1000+ laptop I'd consider a MacBook no matter what OS I was going to run on it. Not least because I could change my mind, even though dual booting (or even triple booting) is a hassle.

Re:a better question

[Anonymous Coward]

Which is because those PC's counted in those margins are low end and mid range models. When you move into the high end, the margins grow much closer and even beyond Apple with companies like HP, Dell, Lenovo, etc. Companies like Samsung, Toshiba, Asus, etc do not even compete for the high end.

Try adding more memory to the competition's laptops, it's almost exactly the same. And yes, it's been proven that people aren't paying attention to the finer details when making these comparisons...such as using low power DDR when others were simply using standard DDR. You're right about them becoming a worse deal over time.

Re:a better question

[Megol]

Right... If one can find a position where the screen glare doesn't ruin it all. I personally can't use an Apple as the glare drives me insane unless seated in a pitch black room - not the best way to do some work...

In fact that isn't true at all - PCs often have better colors, contrast and/or brightness. Just don't buy the bargain basement level of stuff, select computers with IPS screens.

Re: a better question

[Applehu Akbar]

When I run Windows, it's safely in a VM inside OS X.

Re: a better question

[Buck Feta]

(Yeah, haters gonna hate. Mod me down, I don't give a crap.)

You posted AC. Nobody gives a crap.

Re: a better question

[TWX]

...and apparently no one got the joke, since Macintoshes don't have internal blu-ray drives or software to play blu-ray discs...

Re:a better question

[danbob999]

Try to do the opposite now. Build a $800 desktop PC and try to build a Mac with similar specs and look at the price. You will end-up with that expensive Mac Pro.

Re: a better question

[BasilBrush]

Most people buying an iMac get the base version, not the 5k display one.

You complain about anecdotes, then pull that out of your ass?

Re: a better question

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, it isn't.

The fans are all controlled by the SMC chip, which is an H8 micro controller residing on the logic board. OS X uses the SMC to retrieve the decryption keys for most of the major CoreServices binaries, and for occasional fan reporting but nothing more.

The SMC *does* have a fan override mode and there are third party utilities that utilize this but OS X by itself does not modify these parameters.

Re: a better question

[retchdog]

perhaps, but what can linux do that OS X cannot?

Re:a better question

[david_thornley]

Apple doesn't sell into all the market segments. If you want what they're offering, they're quite reasonable. If you don't, then you're going to pay extra for things you don't want or don't care about. They seem not to care at all about the geek market per se (although they're happy to sell stuff to geeks), which means they really don't care what you can do for $800 from Newegg or Micro Center.

Essentially, for certain purposes you're best off with a Mac. For others, you're going to be best off with something else.

Because of service

[bananaquackmoo]

Here's the deal. I am not a fan of Apple. If I weren't recommending a laptop to someone I would never recommend an Apple product. BUT! When it comes to laptops, Apple is really the only option. Why? Because you can walk down to the apple store and someone will fix any hardware problems for you. You can't get that with any PC maker. Heck, the best rated PC maker for customer support took a month to repair something for me, and that's after it took me weeks to get them to even look at it. If you think your laptop hardware is ever going to break or die within the timeframe of a warranty (hint: they almost always do), then Apple is really the only option.

Actually, not a single interesting answer

[davids-world.com]

Sorry, but I couldn't find interesting answers in that Reddit thread. It's mostly that people choose to run OSX over Linux, and why.

The few GNU/Linux users do it for idealistic reasons, or because they're developers, or because they like the latest OS on very old cheap hardware and don't mind to deal with whatever this entails.

The more interesting question is really if freedom exists when you never make use of it. (Do you actually hack the kernel or fix somebody's proprietary binary-only drivers as a GNU/Linux user?)

Re:Exaggeration, much?

[Thumper_SVX]

You realize of course that every time I've called the toll-free number, they've told me to go to the Genius Bar with a service request ID? Yeah... they want to "verify the problem" before they've fixed it. That alone is enough reason for me to say "Nope!"