Am I a Mac advocate?

May 21st, 2008 at 0:33 · Filed Under Business, Computing, Mac OS X · 1 Comment 

Yes, I am!

I started to use an Apple iBook with Mac OS X five years ago. And ever since then, I do my daily works like emailing, web browsing, IM/Skype, appointment, todo, word processing, spreadsheet and almost everything on Mac. Today, I am a total Mac advocate and I also develop software for Mac. Most of the Mac applications I worked on are easily ported to any UNIX systems such as Linux and Solaris or vice versa.

I have switched many people from Windows to Mac. I have helped businesses to switch from Windows to Mac. And the result? They are happy Mac users and I am a happy Mac advocate. Supporting customers in Mac is ever easier and hassle free compare to Windows. Supporting Linux and Solaris mostly as a server together with server applications cannot be compared in that way because the application area and environment are totally different.

Although the initial investment is higher comparing to any other Wintel (Windows and Intel) PC, Mac gives you awesome user experience you can never enjoy with Wintel. The end result, ROI or Return of Investment is higher.

Read my other article about Mac in business here.

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Virtualization - Installing Ubuntu Linux with VMware on MacBook

May 14th, 2008 at 13:40 · Filed Under Call Me a Geek, Computing, Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris · 2 Comments 

I have successfully installed 64-bit Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) Linux on my Mac Book. Out of my expectation, the installation was rather quick and easy compared to installing Solaris 10. I had tried installing Solaris 10 on my Mac Book. Solaris installation was successful but I couldn’t boot into it. I wondered why.

My Mac Book sports an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz with 2GB RAM and 160GB hard drive. I am too skeptical to have 2 physical partitions on my hard drive. Thanks to VMWare Fusion, I can create virtual partition with it. After I have installed VMware Fusion 1.1.1, I created a Ubuntu-64-bit virtual partition and installed Ubuntu from the ISO disk image. With VMware Fusion, I can install directly from the disk image without having to burn a CD or DVD.

Since my Mac Book is codenamed Uranus, I called my Ubuntu on Mac Book, Uranus-Zeta. The idea is from the ζ-ring of Uranus

Like Linux, Mac OS X is a UNIX like operating system. Why do I need Linux? Well, there are a number of reasons. One being you can and another to learn new things. But these are not the reasons to motivate me. Being a software developer developing cross-platform software, I do tests on multiple platforms. Having Linux to run on my MacBook means I can develop and test my software on both Mac OS X and Linux environment without switching to my Linux/Solaris boxes. Another important reason is that I see the needs to support my clients on Linux arise and soon Solaris. Having the ability to run three different operating systems on one machine can be productive and versatile for me.

The other obvious reason is that I have a Core 2 Duo. Meaning I am having two 64-bit CPUs in one processor. It will be a waste of resources if I don’t utilize the computing power I already have. Assigning each CPU to run different operating systems and tasks is called virtualization.

With VMware Fusion, I can run Linux and Solaris side-by-side with Mac OS X without the need to boot into anyone of them at one time. This is a great feature when supporting clients in Mac OS X, Linux and Solaris.

Here are some screen shots (click to enlarge) of Uranus-Zeta:

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