Mac and Linux - How nice do they play together?

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07-03-2007, 03:36 PM
The Coder

Mac and Linux - How nice do they play together?

I wasn't sure where to post this thread so I will post it here. I am thinking of getting a laptop at some point, and I will probably either get a MacBook or a Dell with Ubuntu preloaded. I am not asking how to install Linux on a Mac, I want to keep the preloaded OSX.
I have a desktop PC with Kubuntu on it and I love it and plan on keeping it. I also wanted to have a laptop and since I haven't used mac in a long time I was thinking of getting a Macbook as my laptop. So my question is if I transfer pictures, documents, etc to a Macbook will it inter operate with Linux well and vice versa? Meaning, can I open documents on both with no format issues etc? Know what I mean?
07-03-2007, 05:12 PM
Parcival

Yes, it will interact flawlessly.

With a terminal you can easily ssh into the other machine (be it Mac or Linux). With a samba server you'll easily push around your files. And if your documents are in an openoffice format, you can forget all worries for that part, too.

The only problem I had between Mac and Linux was amarok crashing when playing some mp3s where iTunes added an album cover. However, when playing those files in XMMS they played flawlessly.
07-04-2007, 12:53 PM
WhiteKnight

no issues at all. i have no crashed with itunes and amarok though.. amarok displays itunes album art nicely for me.

however.. amarok don't seem handle UTF8 filenames properly though... but thats another issue...

oh ya.. mac uses CUPS to print stuff too, sharing printers should also be a breeze.
07-05-2007, 04:59 AM
infiniphunk

I'd just use nfs to serve up direrctories to Macs, it should be pretty straightforward. IIRC Mac OS X has something that is as simple as applying a checkmark somewhere and then putting whatever you want to share in the (Public?) folder. Someone with a Mac out there want to elaborate on that one? I think it's in the same place where you can enable OpenSSH.
07-05-2007, 07:17 AM
Parcival

Quote:

Originally Posted by infiniphunk

IIRC Mac OS X has something that is as simple as applying a checkmark somewhere and then putting whatever you want to share in the (Public?) folder.

It's in system settings (but not in "Network", it's in "Sharing", IIRC). When you set the checkmark it basically justs creates a Samba share where you can log in with your username and password.