Is there any particular version of linux that is more similar to MAC OS X?

Hi, i have a Mac Book Pro and a desktop pc, im tired of runing windows since the only few 2 or 3 times a week i use it, it gets freezed. Im wondering if there is a particular distro that is similar to Mac OS X so i dont have to learn it all over again, also one that is particularly more compatible since im planning on having a network. Thanks

I don't think there's one distro that's any more compatible with MacOS files than another, since they all tend to use the same basic applications. Look and feel is a different matter. The ones that look and feel most like MacOSX out of the box are gOS 3 and DreamLinux. The former is based on Ubuntu 8.04; I'm not sure about the latter. But any distro can be customized to look like MacOSX by using MacOSX themes you can download. In general, you'll find the Gnome window manager to be more similar to the Mac than KDE, which is more Windows-like. And they're all easy to network with Macs; there's a file you can download from the Ubuntu/Debian (and derivatives) repositories called Netatalk that makes this very easy. It's also easy to access Mac files on the same computer that has a Linux installation.

But "easy" is relative; no Linux distro is as easy to set up as MacOSX. It's not difficult, but there is a learning curve.

I have to agree here, using Gnome as your DE is about as Mac like as you'll get.

There's Mac4lin, I think it's just a bunch of custimizations to Gnome that make it nearly Mac's twin brother.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/mac4lin/

jerome1232 said: I have to agree here, using Gnome as your DE is about as Mac like as you'll get.

There's Mac4lin, I think it's just a bunch of custimizations to Gnome that make it nearly Mac's twin brother.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/mac4lin/

e17 can get far closer-and can be far more aesthetically pleasing than Gnome or KDE....the catch being there's very little support to be found for e17 distros when problems arise, and dev and packing are slow. Meaning we're approaching Jaunty already and some E17 distros have yet to get Ibex packages out the door.

jerome1232 said: i have to agree here, using gnome as your de is about as mac like as you'll get.

There's mac4lin, i think it's just a bunch of custimizations to gnome that make it nearly mac's twin brother.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/mac4lin/ +1

Skripka said: e17 can get far closer-and can be far more aesthetically pleasing than Gnome or KDE....the catch being there's very little support to be found for e17 distros when problems arise, and dev and packing are slow. Meaning we're approaching Jaunty already and some E17 distros have yet to get Ibex packages out the door.

Is e17 that much different than e16? I've tried out e16 before and while I liked it, it was just so different from anything I've used before that I decided to not keep it. (I definitely wouldn't have called it mac like)

I thought e17 wasn't stable yet?

There are plenty of packages on GnomeLook to help you get the OS X look.

This is my Ubuntu desktop. I use an OS X Emerald theme as well.

[IMG]http://i330.photobucket.com/albums/l410/TR606/Screenshotlinux.png[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i330.photobucket.com/albums/l410/TR606/Screenshot-4.png[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i330.photobucket.com/albums/l410/TR606/Screenshot-2.png[/IMG]

If you want links, let us know..

jerome1232 said: Is e17 that much different than e16? I've tried out e16 before and while I liked it, it was just so different from anything I've used before that I decided to not keep it. (I definitely wouldn't have called it mac like)

I thought e17 wasn't stable yet?

Last I checked e17 was at 16.999.43 or so...so not not "stable", but last I used it it was quite useable and stable for usage....As said though, the slow dev and packaging though can be a bit annoying as well as the minimal support on the internet for it.

The upside being e17 does lots of things graphically that Gnome and KDE have yet to accomplish, or even plan on doing, as well as requiring far less computing power to do it. A full e17 with candy can run on something that would only run Xubuntu (i.e. not Gnome or KDE)

For example here's a propaganda video of Elive-one such...it does a good job showing what it can do:

http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=nCJ8QDfA95U

I used to use e17, until the slow dev/packaging/etc got annoying enough (I wanted to move up to Ibex)..as well as the fact that my new GTX wouldn't play well with it....I tried reinstalling to no avail. It is a very swank environment, it is a shame it doesn't get more attention from users or devs than it does. It beats the pants off Gnome and KDE graphically.