system76 laptops dual boot vista/xp/osx?

I currently have an HP Pavillion laptop which is great... except the screen is insanely cracked, has been for about six months. They told me it would cost $600 dollars (more than half the cost of the laptop) to fix so I told them where to go and got used to the cracks.

But with that possible stimulus package along with my permanent fund check (the money that Alaskans get from oil revenue) I may have some extra money,and gosh it would be great to be able to see my screen.

Here's my question. I like Ubuntu a lot and if I could use it exclusively, I would. But I do a lot of graphic design stuff and gIMP really doesn't cut it- I need photoshop. So, a System76 laptop, (I have my eye on the Pangolin Performance with a 3GB memory upgrade and a 320GB hard drive) can dual boot a different os, yes? OS X would be awesome, XP would be fine, Vista would be annoying. But any of them would work.

Any thoughts?

It will definitely dual boot xp and vista. We've never tested with osx, and I have no idea what it would take to get all of the hardware working under osx.

The 10.5.2 Kalyway OSX on my bonobo works flawlessly. Everything works minus the wireless (no fully working drivers for intel wireless yet), but a compatible USB wireless stick fixes that problem. the iDenb osx's worked as well but had to do a few hacks to get the sound working on those ones (and no wireless because of the intel card).

I wonder if it will work for the serval as I assume their components are very similar.

Apple Inc. has this legal theory that their EULA prevents installing os x on anything other than their equipment - witness their lawsuit against psystar. Personally, I wonder why their EULA doesn't prohibit installing anything other than os x on their stuff... But, just for the sake of argument, how would one get around the lack of bios and the lack of apple SMC?

Isn't running OS X on non Apple products forbidden by its EULA?

In case there are any Apple spies listening in...

System76 doesn't encourage putting OSX on any of our computers (or even on Macs, for that matter. :p ).

Now, on with the show. :popcorn:

former_warper said: Apple Inc. has this legal theory that their EULA prevents installing os x on anything other than their equipment - witness their lawsuit against psystar. Personally, I wonder why their EULA doesn't prohibit installing anything other than os x on their stuff...

But, just for the sake of argument, how would one get around the lack of bios and the lack of apple SMC?

there is a forum dedicated to installing osx on pc hardware

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showforum=85

but all the installs use modified versions of the osx install dvd which gets around the bios smc problem.

wrender said: I wonder if it will work for the serval as I assume their components are very similar.

it probably will as the serval hardware is pretty much the same as the bonobo's. The general consensus is to have as much intel hardware as possible + nvidia video card. (except the intel wireless has no drivers yet for mac). I never use osx though, I just stick with ubuntu and virtualbox for any windows apps i have to use. I just installed it cause I can lol

Lol, I didn't really expect to get a thumbs up on OSX- Apple would never let us do something so communal and uncapitalistic. I don't know a whole lot about the backend programming of an os, so I thought another unix or unix-like operating system would be happier on the system 76 computer.

Glad to hear I can use XP. Now,the question is... is CS4 xp compatible...? With my luck, probably not. Maybe I'll wait to see what happens with "Windows 7."

Ah hah, seems I was wrong. CS4 is indeed xp compatible. :D

Sarai the Geek said: Lol, I didn't really expect to get a thumbs up on OSX- Apple would never let us do something so communal and uncapitalistic. I don't know a whole lot about the backend programming of an os, so I thought another unix or unix-like operating system would be happier on the system 76 computer.

Glad to hear I can use XP. Now,the question is... is CS4 xp compatible...? With my luck, probably not. Maybe I'll wait to see what happens with "Windows 7."

I think I'll just stick with Linux, the best OS :)

jdb

The best OS, perhaps, but not perfect. I need photoshop and itunes...

Sarai the Geek said: The best OS, perhaps, but not perfect. I need photoshop and itunes...

Yea, I concede that point.

There are some killer apps written to run in window's that won't run in Linux & some killer apps written to run in Linux that won't run in windows.

I've found Linux programs I've grown fond of to do most everything I need to do but I still have to crank up my old windows 2000 in VirtualBox for things like TurboTax.

None the less, windows is still a crappy OS. If manufacturers developed for Linux the way they develop for windows, all the problems we have with Linux would go away & windows would go away too.

jdb

gpstar said: there is a forum dedicated to installing osx on pc hardware

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showforum=85

but all the installs use modified versions of the osx install dvd which gets around the bios smc problem.

Thanks. I only wanted to look at it. Don't worry Steve! (My son has a macbook)

This is totally off the subject, but my last computer was a macbook. My first real foray into the apple world, and I loved it... until it died in a fiery spectacular of flaming computer parts flying in all directions, two whole months after the warranty expired. They're nice computers, I'll give you that, and OSX is a good sturdy operating system. But I don't trust apple as far as I can throw it. Can't say I feel more ambivalent about Windows, though...

Just curious: what do you actually *need* itunes for?

jeamer said: Just curious: what do you actually *need* itunes for?

I have an iPod touch. Also, I happen to like iTunes quite a bit...

I found a very good db rebuilder for ipods. DL the app, run it in the ipod, and after that all you have to do is drag and drop. It's very good, as you can actually set up your own filesystems, use it for storage. Even a buddy of mine uses his nano as a server. And you don't have to be a slave to the Macnopoly!

linky/name of it?

Eh, there are worse things to be a slave to. As a matter of fact, I happen to be quite fond of iTunes, and it's not like it costs anything anyway. I think I'll stick with the devil I know. ;)

For me, Songbird looks and feels just like itunes with the right plugins and feathers, but definitely lacks a lot of features at this stage - currently can't burn CDs AFAIK. Nevertheless, there are solutions. The itunes store is a no-go, though (once again AFAIK).

As for your photoshop woes, I run CS2 flawlessly through Wine, the windows emulator on linux. Haven't tried a version beyond that, but it looks as though CS4 is pretty good. Also, my dual boot with XP has been pretty great so far. I have a serp4.

Man, wine is really coming along! I remember when you couldn't do squat with it.

If I ever try iTunes (i.e. someone gives me an iPod or something) I will try the windows version running in Virtual Box.

IIRC Photoshop is on the "officially" supported programs by Winehq. It is supposed to work flawlessly out of the box. For Photoshop, I would try wine first (and post on winehq if something is not working).

I notices something on the system76 wiki. There is a section dedicated to installing windows on a sys76 machine. I know that many people still need windows, however, it would probably be nice to have something about Virtual Box in the wiki as well. I personally did not know about VB until fairly recently and now I've put an old copy of XP on my pangolin with VB. My wife needs Access Database for her work and she can use that without the need for dual-boot, repartitioning or whatever. I think most people's needs could be met by VB in a simpler way.

3Miro said: If I ever try iTunes (i.e. someone gives me an iPod or something) I will try the windows version running in Virtual Box.

IIRC Photoshop is on the "officially" supported programs by Winehq. It is supposed to work flawlessly out of the box. For Photoshop, I would try wine first (and post on winehq if something is not working).

I notices something on the system76 wiki. There is a section dedicated to installing windows on a sys76 machine. I know that many people still need windows, however, it would probably be nice to have something about Virtual Box in the wiki as well. I personally did not know about VB until fairly recently and now I've put an old copy of XP on my pangolin with VB. My wife needs Access Database for her work and she can use that without the need for dual-boot, repartitioning or whatever. I think most people's needs could be met by VB in a simpler way.

I agree. While I wait and save money for a sys76, I've installed Ubuntu over my windows partition. Now I'm waiting for a copy of WinXP to come in the mail to set up a virtual box. It seems like just about 1 million times easier than dual booting. I'm looking forward to tinkering with it! :popcorn:

thomasaaron said: Man, wine is really coming along! I remember when you couldn't do squat with it.

Wine *has* come along nicely. I run a great deal of Windows apps under it flawlessly.