What about Linux-on-Mac?

[Steve Roy]

On Sep 6, 2004, at 1:33 PM, Clinton MacDonald wrote:

>> This is all very cool but missing the point, which is that
>> I need to run the Java software I develop in a complete
>> Linux environment.
>
> Aha! You did not say that before. Have you considered a PC Linux 
> installation on Virtual PC?

Sure did. :) It was the last sentence of the message that started this 
thread.

> If you *really* want to develop for Linux, your most cost effective 
> means may be to purchase (or scrounge) a cheap used PC and install 
> Linux on that. I bought a 933 MHz Dell Mystery Box for about US$210 
> from this site:
>
> <http://www.dellauction.com/>
>
> It runs Mandrake Linux 9.2 like a charm!

My PowerBook runs YDL like a charm. :) I also have a PC and a Sun box, 
so I'm not running out of hardware options to run Linux. All I was 
saying was, since we have Mac-on-Linux, it would be great to have 
Linux-on-Mac. This way when I want to test one of my Java apps, I 
wouldn't have to reboot to do so.

>> I would love to see the iPod driven by Mac OS X Lite instead
>> of the closed OS it currently use.
>
> That would be interesting, but of limited usefulness, I think.
>
> <opinion> Mac OS X is too complex for the kinds of things one does on 
> an iPod. The iPod's OS (whatever it is called) is really well tuned to 
> one-handed operation using a limited set of input controls. Kudos to 
> the company (I have forgotten its name) Apple contracted for the 
> interface design design. Just as one might not want to be running 
> Microsoft Windows on a cell phone (no matter how dumbed down), one 
> probably doesn't want to run Mac OS X on an iPod. </opinion>

We're just discussing for fun, but you're forgetting that Windows CE 
exists for embedded devices, and you also forget that the UI of the 
iPod is not the same thing as the OS. The UI of the iPod is just a 
program like the Finder. The iPod could have the same UI that it has 
now, no matter what OS it uses.

Steve

-- 
Steve Roy <sroy@mac.com>
Personal homepage: <http://homepage.mac.com/sroy>
Projects homepage: <http://www.roydesign.net>