Torvalds Switches to a Mac

renai42 writes "Linux creator Linus Torvalds said this afternoon that he's now running an Apple Macintosh as his main desktop, mainly for work reasons, although partly simply because he's a self-described "technology whore" and got the machine for free." And yes, he is running Linux on it ;)

Just hardware, no apple OS.

[ClickWir (166927)]

Torvald's response came quickly and succinctly. "My main machine these days is a dual 2GHz G5 (aka PowerPC 970) - it's physically a regular Apple Mac, although it obviously only runs Linux, so I don't think you can call it a Mac any more ;)" he said.

Re:Just hardware, no apple OS.

[skingers6894 (816110)]

The thing about Apple is that they put just as much effort into their hardware as their software. If you buy a Mac and ditch OSX in favor of Linux, they have still made a sale of exactly the same value. If a bunch of Linux users started buying Macs to run Linux because Linus does (even though he got his for free!) I'm pretty sure they'd be happy with that.

oblig Torvalds quote

[by Anonymous Coward]

"The memory management on the PowerPC can be used to frighten small children."

Re:Just hardware, no apple OS.

[JabberWokky (19442)]

Wine does not work on a non-intel system. It doesn't handle different opcodes, only a different API. There are solutions for running Windows on PPC, both closed and open source, but Wine is not one of them.

--
Evan

Re:Just hardware, no apple OS.

[ultrabot (200914)]

Which is a shame. Booting into OSX once in a while might give him an additional perspective.

He has repeatedly said that he doesn't care about userspace.

He has also said that Mach, which is the microkernel OSX is based on, is a "piece of shit". Read "Just for Fun", his autobiography, for full details.

Big Deal

[tsmithnj (738472)]

My carpenter switched from a 15" hammer to a 16" hammer. It's just a tool fer Chrissakes....

Re:Big Deal

[Stevyn (691306)]

Yeah, but to people here, it's like Jesus was that carpenter switching from a 15" hammer to a 16" hammer. I don't think this is particularly newsworthy. If I got a free Mac one day, I'd sure as hell use it.

He has been posting from [e-mail]

[tabkey12 (851759)]

for a long time now - thought it was obvious he was using a G5.

Always good to see another boost to the PPC64 platform though...

He already stated this

[BoomerSooner (308737)]

This has been known for a while. [slashdot.org] Read it and he discusses why he runs PPC instead of x86, just to have a different view on kernel development. Plus it's not like he runs OS X or something.

Re:He already stated this

[NoData (9132)]

Yeah right. You know that, late at night, when all the other coders have gone home, after the custodian has come by his office...he peeks out of his office to make sure the coast is clear...draws the blinds, locks the door...and he's dual booting, man, he's dual booting so hard. And it's wrong, but it feels so right.

Hey

[Lostie (772712)]

It should be pointed out that he is certainly not using Mac OSX - but Linux's PPC port (of course). Don't worry - *BSD is still dying. ;-)

Linus has beaten the two biggest drawbacks of macs

[Overzeetop (214511)]

Cost of hardware (he got it for free) and cost o software (he writes his own).

Hey, I'd take it too, given that kind of deal!

Nice tidbit and all

[jtwJGuevara (749094)]

But seriously, let's not turn this into the E! network for geeks. I really personally don't care what hardware platform Linus uses or whether he buys his underwear from thinkgeek.com just so long as he continues doing a smashing job maintaining kernel development.

Have you ever heard about...

[kunwon1 (795332)]

Rats who jump from sinking ships, because somehow, they just instinctively KNOW that it's sinking?









Just kidding. For GODS SAKE I was just kidding. I swear.

single-handedly

[millwall (622730)]

"[...] the man who has single-handedly revolutionised the use of Unix on the x86 platform"

Oh, I thought there were several people involved in Linux? Didn't know Linus created it "single-handedly".

Thanks for pointing that out to me, ZDNet!

Why run Linux on a Mac, if you're not Linus?

[Jay Maynard (54798)]

The dual G5 is a neat box, and having gotten it for free, it's hard to argue with his choice.

Personally, though, I don't see a lot of point in running Mac hardware and not running Mac OS X. The OS is what makes the system so insanely great.

Why should it matter?

[Psykechan (255694)]

Why should it really matter what platform he's using? Is everyone worried that there is going to be an end to the x86 version or something?

Linux is portable. It shouldn't matter if the main man behind it is running it on a PC, a Mac, an Amiga, a PS2, or a toaster. This should be seen as a good thing.

Linus, what kind of bagel did you have today?

[gelfling (6534)]

Concerned geeks need to know.

endian

[Megane (129182)]

This is good for people who run big-endian architectures like PPC. That way, endianness bugs get caught sooner rather than later. It also means PPC support in general will benefit, because if something breaks for Linus, you can expect it will get fixed (or dropped) pretty quickly.

Tragic little story

[Panaflex (13191)]

I'm writing to share a tragic little story.

I have a PC that my sister and I used to use for our operating system development. One night, I was writing a new memory manager on it, when all of a sudden it went berserk, the screen started flashing, and the whole VI session just disappeared. All of it. And it was a good memory manager! I had to cram and rewrite it really quickly. Needless to say, my rushed memory manager wasn't nearly as good, and I blame that PC for the crap I got.

I'm happy to report that my sister and I now share an Apple Dual G5 that we got for free! It's a lot nicer to work on than my old PC was, it hasn't let me down once, and my memory managers have all been really good.

Thanks, Apple.

Linux Thorvalds

Re:So what.

[by Anonymous Coward]

Yes, but does the spell checker work?

Re:Yea but...

[Tony Hoyle (11698)]

Who is this 'Linux Torvalds'?

Is he any relation to Linus?

Re:smart people think alike

[by Anonymous Coward]

> b) Apple hardware is desired over your Average Joe's box from Dell or HP.

Rather, free hardware is desired over your average hardware you pay for.

Re:Nothing wrong with mac hardware

[tabkey12 (851759)]

hell not even a compiler

Wrong

Apple includes full Developer's TOols with every version of OS X, including a customised version of GCC. So there is a compiler, and much more with OS X.

Actually I find OS X runs surprisingly well on old Macs (perfectly working on my 350MHz G3 iMac) but if you want to use Linux, that's cool too. Just don't make inaccurate statements about OS X.

Re:Which distro I wonder

[Erik Hensema (12898)]

He always used to run suse at home and redhat at work. However, I don't think it's wise for him to say what distribution he's currently using. Imagine the response when he told he runs gentoo :-)