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by kriro 4031 days ago
I'm thinking about getting a MBP (have one at work) because the hardware is shiny and OSX is useful/needed for some things (iOS development, Unity development). However I'd much rather run Linux as the base OS. That setup wouldn't violate the EULA. I guess I'll spin up a VB-image on this OSX-MBP and see how it goes :) Useful.
5 comments
stephenr 4031 days ago
I would guess you'll probably get at best mediocre battery life not running OS X as the host OS.

If you happen to have any issues with hardware (that are actually hardware issues) it will also most likely be a lot harder (i.e. more involved) to get support from an Apple Store.

Also, from reading the quoted text about the "virtualisation" clause in the EULA - it may only be "acceptable" (by Apple's terms) to virtualise OS X on top of OS X (emphasis mine):

> to install, use and run up to two (2) additional copies or instances of the Apple Software within virtual operating system environments on each Mac Computer you own or control that is already running the Apple Software

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tracker1 4031 days ago
I also understand, that if you bootcamp to get windows/linux that the thunderbolt ports aren't completely compliant... Ie you'll see issues connecting/disconnecting devices after booting (like the wired ethernet).
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wooger 4031 days ago
Also, there's no way to install firmware updates released by apple unless you're running OS X on the hardware - though you can keep a crappy USB drive around to boot from to accomplish this OK.
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vbezhenar 4031 days ago
Consider running OS X as host OS and Linux as a guest OS in VirtualBox. Unless you are going to play games in Linux, you should have a good experience.
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Igglyboo 4031 days ago
You're far better off dual-booting or running Linux in a VM.

You're going to miss out on firmware updates and have bad battery life.

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MCRed 4031 days ago
There's not much downside to OS X for a Linux fan. Yeah it's BSD but most important unix programs you can get via brew, etc. And of course you can run Linux in a VM at native speed without much problem... run a dozen of them if you want to simulate a distributed system (Which is what I do before pushing out to the cloud.)
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ikeboy 4031 days ago
Why not just dual-boot linux-mac?
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