linux on a mac?

[bcrguy]

i know this isnt the right forum for this but it suits it best.. ( if needed post in proper forum)
can you run linux on a mac and how do you do it.. i need it for school next year and im needing to get a new laptop for next semester.. i dont want to go and get a new macbook this january and end up having to get another new laptop year after..
as of now i dont know what version of linux i need but any version will do..

 

[balamw]

Depends on your needs. Can you elaborate?

You could just run any linux distro virtualized in VirtualBox/VMWare Fusion/Parallels or use Boot Camp to partition your drive as if you were going to install Windows.

For most things though you could just use the underlying BSD/X11 subsystems in OS X if all you're doing is learning programming or the like.

B

 

[bcrguy]

Depends on your needs. Can you elaborate?

You could just run any linux distro virtualized in VirtualBox/VMWare Fusion/Parallels or use Boot Camp to partition your drive as if you were going to install Windows.

For most things though you could just use the underlying BSD/X11 subsystems in OS X if all you're doing is learning programming or the like.

B

i was planing on making another partition and running it on that.. but can you create multiple partitions with bootcamp?? if not i could just use disk utility right? im in an it program for school so we need to set up a few servers and i wanna put linux on my laptop more for fun then anything.. i have no idea what the BSD/X11 subsystems are but how would i access them (just so i know)
thanks

 

[balamw]

i was planing on making another partition and running it on that.. but can you create multiple partitions with bootcamp?? if not i could just use disk utility right? im in an it program for school so we need to set up a few servers and i wanna put linux on my laptop more for fun then anything.. i have no idea what the BSD/X11 subsystems are but how would i access them (just so i know)
thanks

Yes Boot Camp Assistant only supports a single additional partition. If you go beyond that you need to use Disk Utility and Boot Camp Assistant will become useless, so you are on your own.

Applications -> Ultilities -> Terminal
and
Applications -> Utilities -> X11

They are your friendly neighborhood unix command line (shell) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_shell and GUI engine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X11, pretty much anything you can do in Linux can be done with the help of one or both of these.

B