Thinking of replacing OS X with Linux

[joshlalonde]

I love OS X a lot, but I tend to like to change things around..
I want to know what would happen if I ended up removing my OS X partition and replacing it with a Linux Distro. I will not be dual-booting or using a VM.

Will I be able to re-install OS X afterwards? Or would I have to somehow re-install from USB? Or perhaps the recovery partition, if left untouched, can be used to re-install OS X?

So, first part is whether or not I can undo it if I don't like the Linux distro.

Second thing,
I don't like GRUB, but apparently I can't use that anyways since of EFI.
What boot loader would I be using? I believe the boot loader looked much like the OS X boot loader when you hold Alt.

This is all on a Macbook Air 13" 2014.

 

[Intell]

You can always reinstall OS X. GRUB does support EFI and you may want to use that to avoid unnecessary problems.

 

[joshlalonde]

You can always reinstall OS X. GRUB does support EFI and you may want to use that to avoid unnecessary problems.

To reinstall, do I just use the recovery mode?

Also, any way I can make GRUB look pretty :/

 

[Intell]

You can use Internet Recovery. GRUB can be themed to look like nearly anything.

 

[doynton]

There are many alternatives to Grub if you so desire. I use rEFInd but only out of habit really.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Boot_loaders

 

[maflynn]

Keep your recovery partition, just to simplify the re-install of OSX if you choose to go back,

I ran with Linux for a while, but I returned to OS X due to a lack of apps that I needed.

Good luck, using Linux and learning new things was fun, and I miss playing around like that.

 

[jblagden]

Keep your recovery partition, just to simplify the re-install of OSX if you choose to go back,

I ran with Linux for a while, but I returned to OS X due to a lack of apps that I needed.

Good luck, using Linux and learning new things was fun, and I miss playing around like that.

Though, it would be a lot faster to reinstall from a flash drive.

 

[belvdr]

Though, it would be a lot faster to reinstall from a flash drive.

I doubt you'd see the OS X install from a USB flash drive be faster than from the internal SSD. The internal SSD on the 13" Air is capable of about 600MB/s write and 1200MB/s read.

Even though USB 3.0 is rated at 625MB/s, I think the fastest USB 3.0 flash drive is in the 200-300MB/s range, but I haven't kept up on that.

 

[jblagden]

I doubt you'd see the OS X install from a USB flash drive be much faster, if any, than from the internal SSD.

I’m pretty sure the recovery option just has it download the installer and then run that.

 

[belvdr]

I’m pretty sure the recovery option just has it download the installer and then run that.

You might be correct. I haven't done that in years.