Non OS X Alternatives to OS X Yosemite

ZVH · Dec 10, 2014

As of today the adoption rate of Yosemite is nearly equal to that of Mavericks, which means it will likely surpass Mavericks. Whether those of us who can't stand Yosemite like it or not, this is the new direction, which for me, means its time to start thinking about getting the life boat out and jumping ship.

Like many Mac users I came from a Linux/Unix environment. After the Mac captivated me, I stopped paying attention to stuff like Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, etc. However, the time to start paying attention to them is now back.

So with that said, what are the latest/greatest versions of alternatives to Macs? One nice thing will be not having to pay through the teeth for Apple hardware.

Linus MacWinfre · Dec 14, 2014

Migrated from Mac to Linux

Too many things broke because of Apple iOS 7.xx and ML updates so I migrated to Linux Mint where there hardly ever is a hassle of any kind. Not all Linux distro's are this polished, though.

Linux is about three times as fast as OS X as per Phoronix lab tests. I did not need the lab report as I could see it rather obviously.

The MacbookPro has the nicest backlit keyboard and hardware is good quality.

boodaddyz · Dec 14, 2014

I have a mac pro 3.1. I only use Yosemite for music production. I installed Windows 8.1 without bootcamp, and use that for my design company. You can easily install Linux on your mac.

I wouldn't spend more money to jump ship, when you can just paint the ship with a new name lol...

maflynn · Dec 17, 2014

ZVH said:
Like many Mac users I came from a Linux/Unix environment. After the Mac captivated me, I stopped paying attention to stuff like Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, etc. However, the time to start paying attention to them is now back.

Find a platform that has the apps you want to use. What good is Solaris, if it does not have the applications you need to get your job/hobby or task completed.

Of course there's always Windows, since the level of applications available for that platform is huge. Then there's Ubuntu, a very popular distro. Other then that, pick a distro and see what it has to offer.

For me, OS X offers too much and I prefer it over Linux/Unix. I use Windows a lot so I flip flop between booting up on OS X and Windows.

The role of an operating system is to run applications, pure and simple, that being the case, find what works best for you, if Yosemite isn't.

alex0002 · Dec 18, 2014

Just to add to what maflynn wrote...

* Applications - does Linux/FreeBSD have what you need, or do you need a virtual machine or dual boot option?
Most of the applications I use on my Mac are Open Source or have Open Source alternatives.
* Hardware compatibility - you need to consider hardware purchase and O/S selection together, otherwise you might find yourself committing to hardware with poor Linux/*BSD/Solaris support or an O/S that limits the range of hardware that you can use. I suspect that some recent distribution of Linux might be a little better than *BSD/Solaris if you are looking for a laptop, but do all the research you need first.
* Do you want the maximum number of choices and configuration options, or do you want a "polished" and "it just works" approach? You probably won't get both in the same O/S or Linux distribution.

I'm running Debian Linux on my desktop and it's more toward the "maximum choices" end of the scale. Many Mac users wouldn't find it polished enough, but I'm enjoying the freedom to configure.

Linus MacWinfre · Dec 18, 2014

alex0002 said:
Just to add to what maflynn wrote...

* Applications - does Linux/FreeBSD have what you need, or do you need a virtual machine or dual boot option?
Most of the applications I use on my Mac are Open Source or have Open Source alternatives.
* Hardware compatibility - you need to consider hardware purchase and O/S selection together, otherwise you might find yourself committing to hardware with poor Linux/*BSD/Solaris support or an O/S that limits the range of hardware that you can use. I suspect that some recent distribution of Linux might be a little better than *BSD/Solaris if you are looking for a laptop, but do all the research you need first.
* Do you want the maximum number of choices and configuration options, or do you want a "polished" and "it just works" approach? You probably won't get both in the same O/S or Linux distribution.

I'm running Debian Linux on my desktop and it's more toward the "maximum choices" end of the scale. Many Mac users wouldn't find it polished enough, but I'm enjoying the freedom to configure.

Linux Mint is very polished and "everything just works" but this is not true for all Linux distro's. I would not even consider bleeding edges such as Debian or regular Ubuntu on my machines. The latest Linux kernels also cover more hardware compliance than any other OS. A few years ago, this was vastly different. The Ugly Duckling is slowly turning into a graceful swan - if you pick the right cygnet.

----------

maflynn said:
Find a platform that has the apps you want to use. What good is Solaris, if it does not have the applications you need to get your job/hobby or task completed.

The role of an operating system is to run applications, pure and simple, that being the case, find what works best for you, if Yosemite isn't.

Mike, you are so right. Actually, anything able to run Chrome (hardened) is good enough, as long as there is breathing spave and fairly good speed.

I had very bad experience with Apple and software updates as well as an iPhone 5 that was just junk, unlike the lovely 5S that my son had bought.

Read my other poshttps://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1829062/t (and sorry for the original duplication, apologies!

) if you want to know more about that.

A relevant question: how long can I use MS Office for Mac (2011) without a real need to update and replace? If I bought a MBP with Mavs or Yos on it, can I use it indefinitely without being forced to upgrade?

Apple taught me, through hard and bitter experience to "don't fix it if it ain't broke"

Cape Dave · Dec 18, 2014

Linus MacWinfre said:
Too many things broke because of Apple iOS 7.xx and ML updates so I migrated to Linux Mint where there hardly ever is a hassle of any kind. Not all Linux distro's are this polished, though.

Linux is about three times as fast as OS X as per Phoronix lab tests. I did not need the lab report as I could see it rather obviously.

The MacbookPro has the nicest backlit keyboard and hardware is good quality.

Do you run Mint on the MacBook Pro? If so, does it run perfectly?

Linus MacWinfre · Dec 18, 2014

The Sweetest Running Mac In Town!

Cape Dave said:
Do you run Mint on the MacBook Pro? If so, does it run perfectly?

Where do I start?

No tweaking, no hiccups, no nothing other than being the sweetest, most fluid, fastest :apple:

Mac

in town and it is blazingly fast on just an i5 2.5GHz Ivy Bridge CPU.

It comes highly recommended. Internet connection is via USB tethering and even that is just seamless.

You will see similar reports on various Linux forums and the only problems some have are that it won't wake after sleep mode or wireless networking that needs an easy and quick firmware update on some Broadcom adapters on some versions of certain Linux distro's.

Edit: many Linux users buy used Macs that still cost more than equivalent new Windows boxes and then run Linux on it. My other laptop has a feeble AMD Athlon x64 CPU crawling along at 800MHz with 1600MHz burst and even on this 8-year old dinosaur, Linux Mint 17.1, the very latest, just flies. It is about as fast as a new i3 with Win 8.1 on it. Therefore, an older Mac can be revived into a really fast, stable machine - but use Linux Mint, by far the best developed distro.

Linus MacWinfre · Dec 20, 2014

Linux Mint on Macbook Pro - Mint Communities Blog

I just thought that someone may benefit from the posts on Linux Mint Community.

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=185350&sid=bdeac94fe7cb50e347d679ab1ca07102

Yesterday, I booted into Mavs and tried to connect to the Interne then USB, using my Android phone. It showed that it connected but I had no Internet access. I also tried eirless but had the same results, after correct credentials were given.

After a few #$%^%$@$**&# I just booted into a live session of Linux Mint 17.1 and I was online even before the desktop loaded completely. I always use USB tethering so that neighbours don't see my network.

As I have said before, the sweetest running :apple:

in town!

Altemose · Dec 20, 2014

Linux Mint is very nice from what I have seen. I have only periodically used it so I am not quite sure about the technical end of it. I do enjoy Ubuntu especially now that it is getting more and more polished, however I feel it has gotten way slower even on fast hardware since 11.x. Perhaps others feel differently...

Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 in Boot Camp is very polished. One of my major complaints with PCs is that they lack that Apple feeling of everything working together. When I use Boot Camp drivers under Windows, the whole machine just feels like it is how Microsoft wanted it. I doubt they ever wanted people to run their software on $250 laptops from Walmart with terrible construction, parts, and keyboards as it just gives a bad name to Windows.

lowendlinux · Dec 21, 2014

Linus MacWinfre said:
Linux Mint is very polished and "everything just works" but this is not true for all Linux distro's. I would not even consider bleeding edges such as Debian or regular Ubuntu on my machines. The latest Linux kernels also cover more hardware compliance than any other OS. A few years ago, this was vastly different. The Ugly Duckling is slowly turning into a graceful swan - if you pick the right cygnet.

----------

Mike, you are so right. Actually, anything able to run Chrome (hardened) is good enough, as long as there is breathing spave and fairly good speed.

I had very bad experience with Apple and software updates as well as an iPhone 5 that was just junk, unlike the lovely 5S that my son had bought.

Read my other poshttps://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1829062/t (and sorry for the original duplication, apologies! ) if you want to know more about that.

A relevant question: how long can I use MS Office for Mac (2011) without a real need to update and replace? If I bought a MBP with Mavs or Yos on it, can I use it indefinitely without being forced to upgrade?

Apple taught me, through hard and bitter experience to "don't fix it if it ain't broke"

Please understand that your Linux Mint is more bleeding edge than Debian. There are different variations of Debian like testing and SID that are closer to upstream but they're still not bleeding edge. Mint is essentially Ubuntu with a new GUI and some bug fixes.

=====

OP Linux can be anything you'd like, when you ask for recommendations you're going to get "my distro is great you should use it too". Decide what you need the distro to do then go from there. Once you've narrowed it down then go with the distro that has the biggest variety of packages keeping in mind distros also have user built and maintained packages. Usually, the more work the distro is to install the more flexible it is after the install.

grandM · Dec 21, 2014

maflynn said:
Find a platform that has the apps you want to use. What good is Solaris, if it does not have the applications you need to get your job/hobby or task completed.

Of course there's always Windows, since the level of applications available for that platform is huge. Then there's Ubuntu, a very popular distro. Other then that, pick a distro and see what it has to offer.

For me, OS X offers too much and I prefer it over Linux/Unix. I use Windows a lot so I flip flop between booting up on OS X and Windows.

The role of an operating system is to run applications, pure and simple, that being the case, find what works best for you, if Yosemite isn't.

A few years ago I tried installing Solaris on a pc. Lol it gave an error and gave up. Wanted to put it as primary OS. Well, maybe the OP has more luck

SlCKB0Y · Dec 21, 2014

ZVH said:
Linux

Elementary OS is the closest to OS X I have found in terms of design philosophy.
http://elementaryos.org

Cape Dave · Dec 21, 2014

Linus MacWinfre said:
Where do I start?

No tweaking, no hiccups, no nothing other than being the sweetest, most fluid, fastest Mac in town and it is blazingly fast on just an i5 2.5GHz Ivy Bridge CPU.

It comes highly recommended. Internet connection is via USB tethering and even that is just seamless.

You will see similar reports on various Linux forums and the only problems some have are that it won't wake after sleep mode or wireless networking that needs an easy and quick firmware update on some Broadcom adapters on some versions of certain Linux distro's.

Edit: many Linux users buy used Macs that still cost more than equivalent new Windows boxes and then run Linux on it. My other laptop has a feeble AMD Athlon x64 CPU crawling along at 800MHz with 1600MHz burst and even on this 8-year old dinosaur, Linux Mint 17.1, the very latest, just flies. It is about as fast as a new i3 with Win 8.1 on it. Therefore, an older Mac can be revived into a really fast, stable machine - but use Linux Mint, by far the best developed distro.

Thank you. That is very interesting. I always thought I would do Ubuntu if I was to go there, but will now go with Mint.

I have Parallel's and will try that on a VM.

----------

SlCKB0Y said:
Elementary OS is the closest to OS X I have found in terms of design philosophy.
http://elementaryos.org

WOW. I am checking this out!

Linus MacWinfre · Dec 21, 2014

Cape Dave said:
Thank you. That is very interesting. I always thought I would do Ubuntu if I was to go there, but will now go with Mint.

I have Parallel's and will try that on a VM.

----------

WOW. I am checking this out!

Elementary is thinware using apps that cannot sync with mobile devices, etc. If one is serious about prductivity, give it a pass. It also did not run correctly when I installed it on my systems and is just a pain in the butt.

Min remains the most polished, mature Linux about, right out of the box. Elementary needs to be augmented which takes time and effort and, by the time you have the business apps that you need, it is not elementary any longer. A pretty pointless pursuit. Of course it has its disciples but they are few.

maflynn · Dec 22, 2014

grandM said:
A few years ago I tried installing Solaris on a pc. Lol it gave an error and gave up. Wanted to put it as primary OS. Well, maybe the OP has more luck

We have a couple of servers running Solaris (on Sun hardware), I can't recommend this as an option - unless the OP is looking to run an Oracle database. Even Oracle has its own flavor of Linux. I see Solaris as a dead end.

lowendlinux · Dec 22, 2014

Linus MacWinfre said:
Elementary is thinware using apps that cannot sync with mobile devices, etc. If one is serious about prductivity, give it a pass. It also did not run correctly when I installed it on my systems and is just a pain in the butt.

Min remains the most polished, mature Linux about, right out of the box. Elementary needs to be augmented which takes time and effort and, by the time you have the business apps that you need, it is not elementary any longer. A pretty pointless pursuit. Of course it has its disciples but they are few.

It's also a relatively new distro maintained by 3 guys using the same repos you use. If the tools you want are available on Mint they are available with Elementary with a trip to the package manager or apt-get install. Elementary also has a user repo for unique programs, with anything Ubuntu derived or forked is 6 of one half a dozen of the other same stuff different DE.

starikarp · Dec 22, 2014

ZVH said:
As of today the adoption rate of Yosemite is nearly equal to that of Mavericks, which means it will likely surpass Mavericks. Whether those of us who can't stand Yosemite like it or not, this is the new direction, which for me, means its time to start thinking about getting the life boat out and jumping ship.

Like many Mac users I came from a Linux/Unix environment. After the Mac captivated me, I stopped paying attention to stuff like Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, etc. However, the time to start paying attention to them is now back.

So with that said, what are the latest/greatest versions of alternatives to Macs? One nice thing will be not having to pay through the teeth for Apple hardware.

I have FreeBSD more than two years on iMac 11,1 (now 10.1) and it works very good and I don't use OSX all of this time.
https://glenbarber.us/2011/11/12/Dual-Booting-OS-X-and-FreeBSD-9.html
Above link help me to install it on.

SlCKB0Y · Dec 22, 2014

Linus MacWinfre said:
Elementary is thinware using apps that cannot sync with mobile devices, etc. If one is serious about prductivity, give it a pass.

Really? The latest beta (Freya) has Pantheon Online Accounts which syncs with all the online services you would expect.

It has also been rock solid, given it is based on 14.04 LTS, just like the latest Mint.

SlCKB0Y · Dec 22, 2014

Linus MacWinfre said:
Min remains the most polished, mature Linux about, right out of the box.

Mature? Define mature.

Whilst I appreciate your obvious blind devotion, it does come off as a you jumping on the band wagon.

I've used Linux and BSDs daily since about 1997/8 (Redhat 5.x, Caldera), went completely Microsoft free a few years later and for the last 10 years i've spent my working life with Linux... currently managing a datacentre environment with about 1500 physical servers (maybe 10000 total servers including virtualised).

In that time I have tried many releases of dozens of different distros. There is no such thing as the ultimate, one-size-fits-all distro that you are portraying Mint to be. Anyone who even tries to make this claim deserves a certain amount of ridicule.

----------

Linus MacWinfre said:
Linux Mint 17.1, the very latest, just flies.

Whatever good things I can say about Linux Mint (and there are many) I would not say it is lightweight....assuming you are talking about Cinnamon, there are few Linux Desktops which are heavier on resources...

2984839 · Dec 22, 2014

SlCKB0Y said:
Mature? Define mature.

Whilst I appreciate your obvious blind devotion, it does come off as a you jumping on the band wagon.

I've used Linux and BSDs daily since about 1997/8 (Redhat 5.x, Caldera), went completely Microsoft free a few years later and for the last 10 years i've spent my working life with Linux... currently managing a datacentre environment with about 1500 physical servers (maybe 10000 total servers including virtualised).

In that time I have tried many releases of dozens of different distros. There is no such thing as the ultimate, one-size-fits-all distro that you are portraying Mint to be. Anyone who even tries to make this claim deserves a certain amount of ridicule.

----------

Whatever good things I can say about Linux Mint (and there are many) I would not say it is lightweight....assuming you are talking about Cinnamon, there are few Linux Desktops which are heavier on resources...

I aree on both counts. Any distro is going to be a tradeoff between ease of use and flexibility. Mint leans far more heavily towards ease of use, and as a result isn't exactly lightweight and can be limiting if you have specific setup needs. I used it for a while and thought it was decent, but I'm not a huge fan of it. If I have to use Linux, I prefer Arch.

SlCKB0Y · Dec 22, 2014

556fmjoe said:
If I have to use Linux, I prefer Arch.

I've always wanted to try Arch. I like BSD and Ports and used Gentoo waaaay back (somewhere around 02/03) and enjoyed it. The problem is that since I've been doing Linux for a living, going home and using a relatively high-maintenance distro like Arch feels way too much like work instead of the enjoyable hobby it used to be.

The only Linux I use at home now is for testing and learning. I have a CentOS/KVM server with a whole bunch of CentOS vms along with Free/Net/OpenBSD, OpenIndiana(Solaris) etc. I then use a Atom/ION nettop thingy with Elementary for browsing, technical PDF and managing the server using virt-manager.

I got my first Mac in 2003 and for me, OS X felt like the Unix desktop I always wished Linux was. It was stable, low maintenance, user friendly, intuitive, good looking and had a whole lot of commercial software support. When I want to, or need to I can still make use of things like the command line, x11 and all the other unixy things.

2984839 · Dec 22, 2014

SlCKB0Y said:
I've always wanted to try Arch. I like BSD and Ports and used Gentoo waaaay back (somewhere around 02/03) and enjoyed it. The problem is that since I've been doing Linux for a living, going home and using a relatively high-maintenance distro like Arch feels way too much like work instead of the enjoyable hobby it used to be.

The only Linux I use at home now is for testing and learning. I have a CentOS/KVM server with a whole bunch of CentOS vms along with Free/Net/OpenBSD, OpenIndiana(Solaris) etc. I then use a Atom/ION nettop thingy with Elementary for browsing, technical PDF and managing the server using virt-manager.

I got my first Mac in 2003 and for me, OS X felt like the Unix desktop I always wished Linux was. It was stable, low maintenance, user friendly, intuitive, good looking and had a whole lot of commercial software support. When I want to, or need to I can still make use of things like the command line, x11 and all the other unixy things.

I hear you, and tinkering with Arch does get old. To be honest, I don't like Linux that much. I find the BSDs to be much cleaner, simpler, and more stable with less tinkering required. Right now my only Linux computer is a desktop running Mint that is used exclusively for multimedia. The rest of my computers run OpenBSD. I'm much happier with it than anything else.

alex0002 · Dec 22, 2014

Linus MacWinfre said:
Linux Mint is very polished and "everything just works" but this is not true for all Linux distro's. I would not even consider bleeding edges such as Debian or regular Ubuntu on my machines.

Debian is considered to be one of the most stable. You do understand that Debian offer a choice of stable, testing and unstable releases?

I wish to experiment with some of the newer features, so on one machine I'm running the testing distribution. People running servers will often select debian stable. I've also been using CentOS on some servers.

Perhaps debian isn't the best option for a beginner, but the thread starter said he/she "came from a Linux/Unix environment".

There are a number of options out there, but personally, I'd put security high on the list of priorities. Does the distribution make security a high priority? Does the distribution have a dedicated security team? Do they offer continuous updates? Some distributions don't even mention the word security on their main site page and some don't appear to have a page dedicated to security alerts/updates.

lowendlinux · Dec 22, 2014

556fmjoe said:
I hear you, and tinkering with Arch does get old. To be honest, I don't like Linux that much. I find the BSDs to be much cleaner, simpler, and more stable with less tinkering required. Right now my only Linux computer is a desktop running Mint that is used exclusively for multimedia. The rest of my computers run OpenBSD. I'm much happier with it than anything else.

I don't tinker with my Arch, I install the things I need and update once a week.

Non OS X Alternatives to OS X Yosemite

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