Well I wanted to get a 2nd hand G4 Mac Mini to replace my aging, quite mainstream Duron 1300 BeOS box, on which the available software is really starting to show its age. (My primary is a G3-800 iBook. I'm not a power user, and I'm waiting for Core2 and 10.5 before I spring for a MacBook.) Went to Ebay only to discover the rediculous prices that used (stock!) G4 Mini's are still going for. So I downloaded Unbutu, based on all the hype it gets on Digg. I am by no means a newbie to any OS or hardware platform, and I 've tried various Linux distros before and I have NEVER EVER gotten a single one to install right the first time through its own installer. There's always either some driver or piece of code missing and all I can find is something I have to compile myself and has a dependency list a mile long, or it will tell me It's installed all the desktop stuff, but every time I log in it just drops me to a prompt and expects me to StartX or whatever and then when I do it gets halfway through the initialization process and bombs out because the window manager and desktop manager can't talk to each other properly for whatever reason, no doubt the solution being to manually edit some arcane script somewhere in the bowels of /etc. It is usually after about 2 or 3 hours of mucking around with this that I say "Screw it!" and go back to BeOS for another year. I burned the ISO to a disk. No problems. Booted off it. No problems. Boots to a full desktop and not a crappycharacter-mapped install app. Nice. Got the graphics card, sound, mouse correct. Sweet! Click the install icon. So far so good. Got 3 gigs free on the hard drive so I'll make a 2.5G root partition and a 512MB swap. Installer says I need a minimum of 2 GB, so I'm good. This is actually going to work! Install. 5 minutes into the install the @#$!@# installer bombs out trying to copy some insignificant Python script and doesn't even give me the option to skip the file. WTF?! At least the other distros I've attempted have gotten me a bootable, albeit crippled system. I've used preinstalled linuxes before and they're wonderful, but I guess I'm just not masochistic enough to install Linux. I'm back to looking at used Macs again.
OK. I guess I'm missing something. The flames going back and forth are because Mac OSX users (who happen to be using an OS that's built on top of Unix) are telling Ubuntu users (who happen to be using an OS that is a flavor of Unix) to get a Mac (which happens to be running an OS that's built on top of Unix). What's the real problem here? Here's a thought. Why don't the Mac users help the Ubuntu users make their desktops look pretty and the Ubuntu/Linux users can help the Mac users realize what a beast of an OS they actually have under the hood.
kitsune818Jun 19, 2006
I like OpenStep.. does that count as making Linux look like an Apple product? :)
trogdoorJun 19, 2006
"If you want a Mac, buy a Mac. If you want winders, buy winders. If you want Ubuntu (Gnome, KDE, Fluxbox, whatever) trick it out using it's own strong points." Have a look at the rest of his site he has some pretty good stuff:fast mirror: <a class="user" href="http://trogdoor.googlepages.com/dapper-improvments.php.html">http://trogdoor.googlepages.com/dapper-improvments.php.html</a>choral: <a class="user" href="http://users.utu.fi.nyud.net:8080/ljtaim/dapper-improvments.php">http://users.utu.fi.nyud.net:8080/ljtaim/dapper-improvments.php</a>
Closed AccountJun 19, 2006
@MarkByers: Not everyone walks into an Apple and tries stealing a Macintosh.
stalky14Jun 19, 2006
Well I wanted to get a 2nd hand G4 Mac Mini to replace my aging, quite mainstream Duron 1300 BeOS box, on which the available software is really starting to show its age. (My primary is a G3-800 iBook. I'm not a power user, and I'm waiting for Core2 and 10.5 before I spring for a MacBook.) Went to Ebay only to discover the rediculous prices that used (stock!) G4 Mini's are still going for. So I downloaded Unbutu, based on all the hype it gets on Digg. I am by no means a newbie to any OS or hardware platform, and I 've tried various Linux distros before and I have NEVER EVER gotten a single one to install right the first time through its own installer. There's always either some driver or piece of code missing and all I can find is something I have to compile myself and has a dependency list a mile long, or it will tell me It's installed all the desktop stuff, but every time I log in it just drops me to a prompt and expects me to StartX or whatever and then when I do it gets halfway through the initialization process and bombs out because the window manager and desktop manager can't talk to each other properly for whatever reason, no doubt the solution being to manually edit some arcane script somewhere in the bowels of /etc. It is usually after about 2 or 3 hours of mucking around with this that I say "Screw it!" and go back to BeOS for another year. I burned the ISO to a disk. No problems. Booted off it. No problems. Boots to a full desktop and not a crappycharacter-mapped install app. Nice. Got the graphics card, sound, mouse correct. Sweet! Click the install icon. So far so good. Got 3 gigs free on the hard drive so I'll make a 2.5G root partition and a 512MB swap. Installer says I need a minimum of 2 GB, so I'm good. This is actually going to work! Install. 5 minutes into the install the @#$!@# installer bombs out trying to copy some insignificant Python script and doesn't even give me the option to skip the file. WTF?! At least the other distros I've attempted have gotten me a bootable, albeit crippled system. I've used preinstalled linuxes before and they're wonderful, but I guess I'm just not masochistic enough to install Linux. I'm back to looking at used Macs again.
blackmathJun 19, 2006
This is nice and all but I still cant get my goddamn wireless card to work in it!
trancelgicJun 19, 2006
I was hoping that I could find a guide to making my Chevy Trailblazer look like a Honda CRV. Anyone?
filmdude71Nov 15, 2007
OK. I guess I'm missing something. The flames going back and forth are because Mac OSX users (who happen to be using an OS that's built on top of Unix) are telling Ubuntu users (who happen to be using an OS that is a flavor of Unix) to get a Mac (which happens to be running an OS that's built on top of Unix). What's the real problem here? Here's a thought. Why don't the Mac users help the Ubuntu users make their desktops look pretty and the Ubuntu/Linux users can help the Mac users realize what a beast of an OS they actually have under the hood.
cybernetApr 11, 2008
the link is down please remove
seifsallamJan 12, 2009
and i thought people got sick of this s**t, I'm f**kin' board of the XP, Vista, OS X themes y don't people be creative more than that