OS X + Windows 7 + Linux?

The virtualization piece...the answer depends on which virtualization software you use...I believe that with VMFusion and Parallells you can the VM is OS X can reference / use the BootCamp installation of Windows...as to whether this is true or not for Ubuntu someone else will have to respond to.

In the "for what it is worth category" I have recently been playing with virtualization software and other than the need for a native install of Windows (i.e. for gaming, etc.) I see no need for a native installation as I believe that a virtualized installation is better / easier in that:

1. Backing up OS X will backup the VM as well.

2. Changing / porting to a new machine is easier (i.e. simply export and then import the VM).

3. In my testing -- albeit using VirtualBox --I have not found any usage limitations / restrictions in terms of connectivity used by a VM over a native install [granted, this is based on my usage].

4. In terms of usability the OS X multiple desktops means that Windows can be used with a native look by setting up one of the desktops to run Windows full screen.

Anyways, the choice is yours and I hope that this helps.


Joel

Hi, having 3 OS on the same roof is very hard to do and also OS with is EFI make this very hard with windows and worse with Linux as it have is own boot manager. I solved all these problem with a VM ( Parallel or Fusion ) , unless you need all the Video power for games this is a good solution and very easy to do.

d4m1r said:

Oh crap....Does my Macbook use UEFI and NOT a regular BIOS?

Click to expand...

Yes, UEFI AppleStyle.
VMware Fusion is what I use for Vista, Win8 and Linux on Mac. Works well if not hardcore gaming.

But my Linux and BSD get moved to dedicated ESXi box; with the free hypervisor (I know, an entry drug)

d4m1r said:

Thanks for the tip, but I am looking to install a full
copy of Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and Ubuntu 12.04 LTS x64, prefferably using bootcamp.

So is this currently not possible? What about just OS X and Ubuntu 12.04?

Click to expand...

Sorry, I never have or will use bootcamp ... No experience with it.

Did you tried Google ? it will bring you to some messages over in Ubuntu forum and covering triple-installs; but seems on older versions and and rather complicated.

As far as I know OSX and linux is the hard part, search on google for a good step by step install

There are already a lot of threads in this forum discussing how to triple boot, I think the OP should do some basic research on his own and then post specific questions to get clarification.

The bottom line is that triple boot is rather difficult, primarily because of the partitioning issue. Windows or Linux via Boot Camp will depend on an MBR partition scheme, whereas OS X uses GPT. Apple uses an ill advised hybrid MBR scheme which means you simply don't have enough MBR partitions to do triple booting very elegantly or safely.

Apple computers use Intel EFI 1.10 as the base for the firmware, with some bits of UEFI 2.x. So it's really neither, it's uniquely Apple firmware.

"Boot Camp" is not any one single thing, it's a collection of Windows drivers, a Boot Camp Assistant to prepare the hard drive including the creation of a hybrid MBR, and a (U)EFI CSM (compatibility support module) which provides a BIOS to Windows and Linux.

Ideally you'd UEFI install Windows 8 and Linux, so that you don't have to use Boot Camp Assistant, and don't have to depend on the CSM-BIOS, and thus don't need a (hybrid) MBR. This greatly simplifies partitioning, but the problem is that the non-standard Apple EFI makes this a bit more difficult than it should be. Not every linux distro supports UEFI booting on Apple hardware consistently. And officially only Windows 7 via CSM-BIOS is supported on Apple hardware (which of course then necessitates the use of hybrid MBR and all of its problems).

Except for games, there is hardly an advantage to natively booting Windows or Linux on native hardware. You're invariably better off running them as VM guests on an OS X host.

And if you decide to natively install Windows or Linux, be aware that only specialized software can be used for resizing the partitions. The forums are fraught with data loss by users who tried to resize their NTFS Windows volume from within Windows. So for a one stop app to do this, without having to learn a lot of different command line tools, you'l need something like iPartition (possibly CampTune or Winclone can do this also).