Linux for someone used to MacOS


WizardStan

Mega GP Mania
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I bought a really cheap laptop at auction the other day (actually a bunch) and am giving one to a friend who is in desperate need of an upgrade but can't afford a new computer. This laptop is an x86 but he's only ever used MacOSX. To give him the most comfort, I've offered to get him setup with a Linux distro, but I don't know which one. My normal stops are Ubuntu or OpenSuse, but having never used a Mac myself I can't comment on how "Mac-y" these might be. Any suggestions?
 
Blue Protoman is right. Ubuntu is very likely the way to go, there.


Personally, I never had any trouble hopping from Mac OS X to Kubuntu (which was my first Linux distro), several years back, but this sort of thing very much depends on what you're after (I went with Kubuntu because at the time it was more customisable than the alternatives).
 
Except Unity just gets in the way, they removed a lot of stuff that is essential to the user. I would absolutely not recommend Unity.


Depending on the hardware, XFCE or KDE.
 
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I would absolutely not recommend Unity.
Neither would I, though if I recall correctly it uses the same document driven metaphor as the MAC is. I.e. not making a distinction between starting an application and switching to it while it is already running.
 
How about a nice Gnome2 setup with Debian 6 or Ubuntu 10.04? Simple, yet does what you need, plus a bit more stable.


I've always also heard that Linux Mint is nice, too.
 
Neither would I, though if I recall correctly it uses the same document driven metaphor as the MAC is. I.e. not making a distinction between starting an application and switching to it while it is already running.
I'm not 100% sure if you're meaning Mac OS X here, since you capitalised it, but, since when doesn't it make that distinction? :blink: Did I miss something?
 
I've just gone with Ubuntu 11.10. I also gave Kubuntu a try, but it isn't responding to mouse clicks at all for some reason. I could probably delve deeper but I don't feel like messing about too much with it when straight up Ubuntu seems more or less suitable.


Thanks guys!


edit: incidentally, I believe the next time I upgrade it'll be to Kubuntu. It's looking quite snazzy.
 
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Except Unity just gets in the way, they removed a lot of stuff that is essential to the user. I would absolutely not recommend Unity.

Hey, didn't say that I used it. I myself prefer the Ubuntu Classic (aka GNOME3, I believe) interface.
 
None of them is MacOSy enough. I personally think that trying to skin Linux to resemble Windows or MacOS 'to comfort the user' is not a good idea - it doesn't change the underlying system, so the said user only gets frustrated every time when something looking like MacOS doesn't act like it. Maybe different looking DE is actually better, so that you know you are working in different OS.


I would propose Ubuntu, too, as it has the biggest and most active community ATM, huge repos and all these PPAs and tons of blogs 'How to do stuff in Ubuntu'. I would also propose to stay as close to 'mainstream' as possible unless doing otherwise is necessary. It's going to be easier to maintain that way.


If you are going to help him with the laptop now and then, you probably should install what you know best, but if you going to just hand him a laptop and let him into the wild, install Ubuntu.
 
I'm not 100% sure if you're meaning Mac OS X here, since you capitalised it, but, since when doesn't it make that distinction? :blink: Did I miss something?
Yes, I meant OS X. I always understood that the dock (which unifies the launch bar with the taskbar) was based on the interaction paradigm that the running state of a program is something for the OS to keep track off and not something a user should be concerned with.
 
I must say that that's the first time I've ever heard that. :p It shows the running state of an application, and to my knowledge always has done - it puts a glowing dot (or a black arrow, in earlier releases) below the icon to mark what's running. And of course, Command + Tab (same function as Alt + Tab tends to be on other OSes) cycles through what's running, too, for a quicker overview.
 
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Ive not used too many distros ever, only a couple, but im loving my current one i have on a low spec PC that used to run WinXP .... sloowly


I use bodhi and its enlightenment


http://bodhilinux.com/


It is very nice looking, it is lightweight and out the box doesnt have much installed at all, but I like that and soon added the things i wanted.


I think it is probably pretty close user experience to a Mac OS in that it is very 'swish'


..by which i mean it has all sorts of fancy effects when opening/minimalising/etc


maybe check a couple YT vids on it and see


Looks wise, i cant fault it, and it runs so much faster than when i had XP running on it - but i guess thats a given
 
I must say that that's the first time I've ever heard that. :p It shows the running state of an application, and to my knowledge always has done - it puts a glowing dot (or a black arrow, in earlier releases) below the icon to mark what's running.
Ah ok. I mostly know this from user interface discussions that I've read here and there as I don't own (or intend to own) apple products myself. Glad to hear it is much more sane than I've assumed so far :)
 
I ended up going with straight Ubuntu and it's just been dropped in the mail. I'll let him know of other options like Mint if he has any troubles. I'm sure he's technical enough that I could walk him through installing something.
 
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