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monkeybagel

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jul 24, 2011
1,144
62
United States
I am looking to specifically get a Mac Pro soon, and was wondering if many users dual boot with a version of Linux or UNIX as well, and if so, how's the compatibility? Specifically it will be a 2012 model.

It will not be the primary OS (OS X will be) but was just curious as I feel sure I will dual boot (but will run VMware Fusion is compatibility is not great).

I understand there is a sub forum for alternative OS but was interested in the Mac Pro specifically.

Thanks!
 
Well, the 2012 Mac Pro is the 2010 Mac Pro, so I wouldn't recommend you to pull the trigger on one, now that it's fate is on a limbo since the last WWDC.
As for the *nix thing, you're much better with parallells than with vmware. But if you intend to boot some other flavour of *nix, fedora has efi boot (not sure about other distros) and can be installed without a pain.
 
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Mac OS X is UNIX, so I'm not sure why you'd dual boot to get *NIX. Certainly if you had a specific application that work only with Linux, sure...
 
I will probably continue to use VMware Fusion (unless Parallels is significantly better) and CentOS as testing and developing.

Would like to try Cent native however it is not a strict requirement.

Have a 12 core on order so I know in a few days how well I like it, with a 5870 and 2 ACDs.

This is a silly question, but since recovery DVDs are no longer shipped, and I haven't personally seen an EFI update to support Internet recovery on the MP how does one wipe the hard disk? I assume it does have Internet Recovery firmware on a 2012?
 
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I will probably continue to use VMware Fusion and CentOS as testing and developing.

Would like to try Cent native however it is not a strict requirement.

Have a 12 core on order so I know in a few days how well I like it, with a 5870 and 2 ACDs.

This is a silly question, but since recovery DVDs are no longer shipped, and I haven't personally seen an EFI update to support Internet recovery on the MP how does one wipe the hard disk? I assume it does have Internet Recovery firmware on a 2012?

Purchase Mountain Lion from the Apple Store, Download it and install it on a USB (8gb) using Lion Diskmaker (search google), boot from USB and you can wipe the hard disk via Disk Utility.

mokeiko
 
Purchase Mountain Lion from the Apple Store, Download it and install it on a USB (8gb) using Lion Diskmaker (search google), boot from USB and you can wipe the hard disk via Disk Utility.

mokeiko

I am aware of the workarounds, but was wondering what the official Apple way of doing it is. Perhaps it does have the Internet recovery EFI. I guess I will see in a few days when checking it out.
 
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