Just to clear up a few things:

- The TPM chip on some Mac has never been used. It's my guess that
marketing decided against it, purely for imago problems. There were a lot
of reactions from ordinary users in the style of "I don't want anything on
my Mac that might check if I'm running pirated software".

The plan was to sign all software, something they have implemented without
hardware now.

2016-01-27 12:16 GMT+01:00 Simon Hobson <linux@???>:

> Robert Storey <robert.storey@???> wrote:
>
> > So maybe I should ask: Have you tried installing Linux on your MacBook?
> If so, how was the experience? Any advice about that? Any nonsense to deal
> with similar to Microsoft's "secure boot"? (if you answered those questions
> already in another post, I"m sorry, I missed it).
> >
>

I have installed Debian, up to Wheezy on some Macs. In general, it's not a
problem. Everything works, except the camera. There is NO driver for it
that I'm aware of. EFI isn't a problem, even if there are no docs. Several
utilities exist (DarwinDumper, fi) to read an modify it. When it comes to
dual or even triple booting, RefIt works perfectly.



> > Anyway, expensive though it might be, I'd consider a MacBook in the
> future, especially if I could dual-boot it with Linux.
> I last tried native Linux back in the G4 MacBook days - I can't say I've
> tried it lately. For Linux and Windows, I either remotely access a server,
> or I run a VM (I use parallels, other virt options available). Biggest
> problem I have is that my current machine (Mid 2008*) is maxed out at 8G
> RAM and that just isn't enough - I can get to 4 or 5G swap space used 8-O I
> really need a newer one but usual problem - no money !
>
> I still have my previous model, I suppose I ought to try a native install
> on it - and perhaps see if I can get OS X running as a VM.
>

I would prefer dual booting personally, since running OSX in a VM isn't
always perfect. Fi, access to external hardware over USB, like audio
interfaces, doesn't work properly. Harddisks and the usual stuff like HID
devices just works.


>
> * Yes, the one with the faulty SATA that doesn't like 3gbps drives - you
> try finding a drive these days that has a jumper for 1.5gbps operation :-(
>
>
You don't need to jumper drives. I've never encountered any drive that
doesn't work with these machines.



>
> TBH, I'm one of a growing band who's used Apple stuff for <cough> decades
> (before Mac), but getting increasingly "irritated" by their move to ever
> more closed systems - not to mention their tendency to drop stuff with
> little fanfare if they think it's of benefit to them. E.g., in 10.9 they
> dropped Sync Services in favour of "you *WILL* sync your i[Phone|Pod|Pad]
> via our cloud" (rather than just plugging in a USB cable). That backfired,
> and enough iThing users kicked up enough fuss that they actually
> backtracked and re-instated the service. Unfortunately, they only
> re-instated what they needed for the iThings, not the whole service so 3rd
> party software that relies on it (like the Missing Sync I use for my
> Android phone) is broken after 10.8.
>


Yep. The golden cage is slowly losing it's shine, but not it's lock.

OSX even sends UNSAVED documents to the cloud, according to some.



>
> So I have been seriously considering whether "some other make" of
> hardware, running Linux native, and OS X in a VM might be better. But
> comparing real specs, the hardware isn't that much cheaper - and I don't
> have the cash nor the time to do it. In reality, comparing actual specs, I
> don't think their hardware is all that pricey - it's more that they don't
> do "cheap, low spec" machines which is what many people compare with.
> AFAIK they don't provide Linux drivers (but I suspect they don't need to),
> but for those wanting to run Windows, there's a utility to generate a
> Windows driver disk for the machine. So they aren't really that closed in
> terms of what they'll let you run.
>
>
My latest experiment was with an older Toshiba laptop, a Pentium M 1.5 GHz
with only 512 MB ram and no HD. The Toshiba harddisk adapter is missing, as
the previous owner pulled the harddisks. This isn't a problem, you can find
those for a couple of € on ebay, I just haven't ordered them yet. As I have
a pile of those machines, it seemed interesting to do something with them.

There wasn't one Linux distro that installed from CD to a USB or FW
attached disk on this machine. I've tried a dozen or so, starting with
Debian Wheezy. The only thing that worked with the standard installer and
supported all hardware out of the box, except wireless, was FreeBSD.

Unfortunately, the white sticker with the precise model is blank on all of
them and Toshiba has a habit of making lots of similar models.



> My biggest beef is their "closed maintenance" attitude. They only sell
> spares to authorised service centres, and they impose a "no resale"
> condition to stop those service centres selling on new parts - that wasn't
> too bad back in the days when I part owned a dealership and our margins off
> list price was 32% :-), sucks now I'm an end user :-(. Not too bad if you
> have an older model - then there's usually supplies of cannibalised spares
> available.
>
>
There is a very thriving third party market that doesn't play by Apple's
rules. Even new parts are no problem, except maybe for the very latest
models. But those should still be under warranty.

There's also a growing number of small companies that do component repair
(reballing, replacing flaky GPU's fi) on mainboards over here.

All recent Mac models have the ram soldered to the main board. No expansion
possible, except the Mac Pro. You need to configure the machine when buying
new and that is at inflated Apple prices for ram.

Batteries in Macbooks are glued in. SSD's still can be replaced. LCD
screens are Philips/LG and are available from China, for a lot less than
Apple prices. Luckily, DisplayPort is a standard in screens, so they are
plentiful.

Batteries can also be obtained from China, and I have good experiences with
these. On about 30 procured over the years, only one failed after a week.
When I emailed the seller, he sent another one promptly. No need even to
return the defective one and since sending to China from here will cost an
arm an a leg, that's good.

Another, unrelated note: Dell service was hacked. So, if you buy a new
Dell, don't give them your credentials, or you might get a call from a
scammer that has all your personal data, including type of computer,
serial, and your address, phone number... and will sound convincing on the
phone.

I don't think legislation to keep hardware "open" will work. Legislators
tend not to understand the matter and hardware manufacturers are way too
clever bypassing laws.

Fi, I just noticed that the Toshiba laptop's batteries have a sticker that
reads "Exempt from environmental tax"...



Cheers,

Wim