Switching from macOS to Ubuntu - a developer's story. Linux operating systems for different tasks

Creating a bootable Linux flash drive in OS X couldn't be easier. Do you think so too? As it turned out, everything is not so simple. Maybe this has something to do with the version of OS X, I have El Capitan, or maybe something else. But the point is this.

Well, I didn’t want to start the recorded flash drive in any way through BIOS.

If any of you have asked this question, then you may have come across large number articles of the same type, by the way, this exact method of creation is also described on the Ubuntu.ru forum. This method involves creating a bootable flash drive using the Unetbootin program.

Having read a sea of ​​articles and posts that praise this method, what I get is that the flash drive is not bootable. I tried it again, and again, but the end result was the same.

As I already wrote, I don’t know the reason, perhaps due to incompatibility with the OS X version, or perhaps due to the fact that the Ubuntu image, and other operating system images GNU Linux are distributed in ISO, and the native Mac OS format is DMG.

Now let’s look at a 100% working method that I have tested to create a bootable one, which is also an installation flash drive. Linux Ubuntu, Mint, Debian, etc..

Creating a bootable flash drive in OS X (Working method)

To create a bootable flash drive we will need:

1. Flash drive at least 4 GB;
2. An image of the GNU Linux operating system. In particular, I used Linux Ubuntu, you can download it from the developers website http://ubuntu.ru/get; Download Linux Mint available from https://www.linuxmint.com
3. Mac OS X terminal.

As you will see below, the entry for Ubuntu and Mint differs only in the name specified in the path to the file. In general, the method is suitable for recording any Linux distribution.

Converting ISO image to DMG

Since the native format Mac images– this is DMG, and the downloaded image is in ISO. We convert the downloaded file into DMG format. To do this, enter the following command into the terminal.

hdiutil convert -format UDRW -o ~/Downloads/ubuntu.img ~/Downloads/ubuntu-16.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso

Where " ~/Downloads/ubuntu.img“ is the path to save the DMG image, and “ ~/Downloads/ubuntu-16.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso” – the path directly to the original ISO image.

Unmount the flash drive

Extract using disk utility or terminal. The flash drive itself remains in the slot.

diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk1

"disk1" V in this case serial number defined by the system .

You can find out his number in two ways:

Method one through the terminal. We type the command:

As we can see, the path to my flash drive is defined as “ /dev/disk1“.

Method two using disk utility. Opening the standard Mac disk utility, select our flash drive

And look at the name in the column: “Device”. Therefore the same path is obtained.

Burning an image to a flash drive

Let's move on to writing the newly created DMG to a flash drive. To do this, type the command in the terminal:

sudo dd if=~/Downloads/ubuntu.img.dmg of=/dev/disk1 bs=1m

Where " ~/Downloads/ubuntu.img.dmg” is the path to the DMG installation image we just created. “ /dev/disk1” – the path to the flash drive, which we defined above, and which we unmounted using the terminal or disk utility.

After which we wait for some time, which depends on the speed of the port and the flash drive recording. There will be no signs of recording except for the flashing diode of the flash drive; under no circumstances pull out the flash drive, but wait until the recording is complete.

In my case, the recording took about 20 minutes.

Do not under any circumstances remove the flash drive or turn off the computer until the recording process is complete.

After successfully writing to the flash drive, a window should appear in which you can click the eject button.

Each operating system has its own established legend and history. Windows is a workhorse that is used by almost any category of user - from the corporate sector to housewives. Linux is a complex and capricious system, accessible only to tough programmers and system administrators. The Mac is more associated with design and art, providing a beautiful and convenient work environment for creativity.

However, all these attitudes came to us from the past. Today it is reckless and incorrect to give such unambiguous assessments. For example, the hero of today's review comes from the world of Linux, but behaves and looks like he is a bastard son of Apple.

is a new distribution based on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. Knowledgeable people will immediately understand that this means stability, almost one hundred percent absence of errors and long term support. The main principles underlying the development are simplicity, design and the absence of the need for lengthy and complex setup.

The first thing that will greet you after installing the system is user interface. Working environment Elementary OS is our own development and is called Pantheon. It looks just great and it's impossible not to notice its similarity to Mac OS. Here we see a similar application dock at the bottom, a functional panel at the top of the screen, and the same attention to every element of the interface, as is typical of Apple.

The application launch menu is called Slingshot, and it is accessible from the left side of the top panel. Slingshot can display installed applications in various categories and has a search bar. Top panel called Wingpanel. It is made in a minimalist spirit, contains a clock in the middle and an indicator panel on the right side.

Lower dock, under code name Plank, works exactly like the corresponding element in OS X. It contains buttons for quick launch and displays which applications are in at the moment launched. In addition, Elementary OS Luna has the ability to display small copies of all windows when you move the mouse to the corner of the screen (analogous to expose) and several desktops, between which you can easily switch.

Of course, Elementary OS Luna, like others Linux distributions, contains complete package preinstalled software. Only here preference is given to the lightest and simple programs, the interface of which is also specially adapted for this system.

• Midori— web browser;
• Noise- music player;
• Geary— mail client;
• Shotwell— photo manager;
• Totem- video player;
• Empathy— communication on the network;
• Scratch- text editor.

Elementary OS Luna really stands out somewhat among the large family of Linux distributions. Beautiful design, convenient user environment, applications specially adapted for this system make it ideal for beginners or people who do not want to spend a lot of time setting up and finishing the system. The principle of “installed and immediately started working” works great here. Add to this the stability and long-term support of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (until April 2017) and you will understand that this is truly an excellent choice for work.

However, experienced Linux users and those who like to tinker with the settings may feel somewhat uncomfortable here. Because they may not feel any need for their skills. Why fix something that already works?

Perhaps Khabra residents will be interested in the opinion of the “on the contrary”, a Mac driver with 6 years of experience (yes, this was when there were PowerBook G3/G4 with PowerPC and Mac OS X Tiger processors), who by chance had to work on Linux Ubuntu with Gnome on board.

Linux => Mac OS

Switching from Linux to Mac OS shouldn't be anything scary at all - the use of the former is usually not limited to the graphical shell (well, yes, kindergartens, schools and others government organizations they are moving towards this and not one step further) and the biggest ailment on the way, for sure, may be the lack of some vital necessary utilities, like apt-get and others (although, as it was later found out, even on a Mac you can get similar functionality).

Mac OS => Linux

On the part of a Mac user, switching to Linux is a complete disaster, because exactly half of it becomes intuitively incomprehensible. It is possible that this particular problem can be solved by choosing an alternative graphical shell, but I did not have the right to choose specifically - workplace organized specifically with Gnome (for reference - work in the service technical support hosting provider). In the future, it becomes even worse when, to solve any problems, you have to resort to editing configs manually. Linux users, of course, may laugh, but when in 6 years you have opened /etc/hosts at most to insert an entry and nothing else - this is scary; in Mac OS there has never been such a need in principle. Also new is the system for organizing applications in Linux. One file with the .app extension in a .dmg image seems like a godsend compared to installing and hosting applications on Linux, but only at first glance.

The story of my transition

It so happened that the key point when choosing employees for our company was “trainability” and “the ability to learn quickly and independently.” Perhaps this is what hooked me. When I learned that I would have to work on Linux, I was, perhaps, only delighted - I knew that my MacBook would not escape me.

When you start working in Linux, you immediately understand exactly half of it. This half is what can be used with Gnome (I suspect that it is not half). During the first month of interacting with Linux, I tried my best to avoid the console. Just the sight of her made me feel distrustful and disgusted. After Finder, using cd, ls, mv, rm, mkdir is kind of absurd. Later, my Mac-loving friends, when they saw my interactions in the terminal with files on the Mac, bulged their eyes and stared. To the eye of a typical poppy grower, this is “show-off”, “perversion” and one logical cliche - “why complicate everything?” However, it’s really not worth complicating things when Finder is at hand, but... when, damn it, it’s not there...

Maybe I didn’t understand the philosophy of the standard Gnome file manager, but I don’t remember anything more disgusting in Linux. Perhaps it was he who taught me to perform all operations with files from the console.

After getting acquainted with Linux, I found working via ssh with other machines to be a huge advantage. Previously, I only needed ssh access to upload maps of St. Petersburg and the region to the iPhone, and I limited myself to the CyberDuck client - working with files. The beauty of ssh was precisely this: full access to the car and using various utilities, I found it incredibly interesting and useful.

Another advantage that I adopted after using Linux is a bunch of useful utilities such as grep, awk, vim, etc. Particularly pleasing is writing your own shell scripts directly in command line. After programming experience in other languages, the shell, although it was more difficult for me personally to master, was quite realistic and productive.
I admit, the use of Linux is currently limited to a certain number of commands, but this is not because it is “not mastered,” but because more is not needed yet.

Regarding the organization of programs in both systems ... I did not delve headlong into the process of installing applications in Linux - perhaps it is not very interesting to me, but I was told that the program is usually located in different directories, that after one application file in Mac OS (yes, there is There are also application components in the Library directory, but they are not critical, usually they are caches and saves of some kind) also, a little scary. The only thing that made me incredibly happy about this background was standard utility installation of applications (with and without interface). All applications with descriptions and even screenshots are very conveniently collected (the principle of Cydia’s operation on the iPhone has become clear).

General impression

The lack of a uniform interface throughout the entire system is a minus in the Linux basket, it’s a little off-putting. The presence of all sorts of goodies in Linux is a minus in the Mac OS basket. Absence iOS support devices on current firmware in Linux - minus. Organization of application management is a plus of Linux. In fact, the architectures are identical, most of the commands that I use at work also help me at home on a Mac, but not all. I solved the problem very simply - I set up the use of apt-get on Mac OS and I still don’t know the trouble. What is missing now will be installed in a minute. All the functionality of Linux is great for working on the network, as it seemed to me, namely for developers and experienced users. The only difference is that in Linux it is “out of the box”, and in Mac OS it is optional. In other words: “To make Linux more user-friendly, crutches are required, to make Mac OS more functional, crutches are required.”

To be completely honest - I liked Linux, I even installed it as a second system on my laptop as an experiment. During these very experiments, I came to the conclusion that... I could give my MacBook to my mother, and install Linux on the EEE 901 and this would be more than enough for me, if not for one BUT.

Someday, Apple will make iTunes for Linux, my mother will work on a Mac, and I will spend 9 hours on EEE on battery power, editing some regular crap that won’t start (well, this happens sometimes, once a month consistently ). Leave iPhone and iPad without big brother While this is not possible, they are still the same favorites that help out (by the way, working in the console with an iPad is also quite convenient).
In the meantime, I'm on Mac OS, everything I use at work in Ubuntu can also be used at home. As a last resort, there is limited access via ssh on home machines, which regularly helps out.

Linux and Mac OS despite their similarities - different systems. This is due to many factors (number one is the commerce of Mac OS), but, as they say, to each his own.

There are many people in the world who find the OS X interface convenient. Is it possible to set up something like this yourself? appearance on Linux, for example, on Ubuntu OS or its derivatives? Can. Moreover, you don’t need a large file, a small one is enough. That is, even a beginner can cope. In general, avoiding long preambles, let’s just consider different options.

Cairo-Dock

“It’s really very simple!” - exclaims more or less advanced user GNU/Linux. - “Get Ubuntu, turn on hiding the Launcher panel before hovering the pointer, install Cairo-Dock and enjoy!”
However, unfortunately, everything is not so simple and cloudless.

Cairo-Dock does provide, with apologies for the tautology, a “dock” - an icon panel similar to that of OS X and with similar functionality. These icons both launch applications and switch between windows.

But Cairo-Dock is not just an additional interface element, it is now a whole graphical shell. And its integration with Ubuntu is not inspiring. Because Ubuntu is designed for the Unity desktop and is not friendly with other environments. Anyone who tried to install, for example, MATE or Cinnamon, probably encountered glitches and other misunderstandings.

In short, Unity needs to be cut out completely, only then it will not interfere with other shells.

Instead of the bulky Cairo-Dock software, it is better to take the small and modest Docky program. We install and configure the “apple” appearance (by default, the rectangle does not look like a translucent shelf, it does not “go into perspective”). Works well with Unity on Ubuntu. Now all that really remains is to hide the Launcher, assign a light theme, and set the OS X wallpaper.

At the same time, the main problem of Gnome, which has scared away many users, is solved - the lack of a taskbar or similar quick remedies switch between windows. Docky is just such a tool. It's a pity that the program is not a standard part of GNOME Shell.

Ready solutions

Most users do not want to pick up even a small file at all. They prefer self-sufficient products. Some of them, having sufficient knowledge, decided to create ready-made Linux distributions with an “Apple” taste. Let's look at a couple of such products.

Pear OS, also known as Pear Linux, is an almost complete imitation of OS X, only instead of a bitten apple on the logo there is a pear (hence the name “Pear”). Indeed, everything was ready for use.

Why was it? Because the creator sold the distribution and removed the installation ISO images from public access. On SourceForge you can still get the old fifth release, which remained there, apparently due to an oversight. In general, you will have to get the OS somewhere on torrent trackers.

However, perhaps the old release will also be useful, since the last free one, the eighth in a row, had some defects. In particular, the system did not know which program to open media files in. Associations had to be configured manually.

ElementaryOS is still a live project. This is Ubuntu, but there is no spirit of Unity there. Instead - the Pantheon shell, its own desktop based on GNOME 3.

It works great, much faster than the original Ubuntu, and can be installed even on weak netbooks. But the “dock” there doesn’t look like the “Apple” one, and in the “Luna” release (based on Ubuntu 12.04) it’s unlikely to be configured as needed. Minimize windows (minimize) - only by right-clicking on their titles.

There are other problems, for example, selection of software. File Manager Files closes by itself, it's better to replace it with Nautilus or something similar. You should also take care to install a normal text editor. LibreOffice (no way without it) should be added only in conjunction with the libreoffice-gtk package, otherwise there will be no integration with the theme at all.

However, when installing any OS it is still required applications need to be added, so it won’t scare away a newbie. The main thing is that the desktop is initially “Apple” in spirit; the interface does not require significant independent modifications.

Conclusion

So, the simplest and most universal option is the Docky program, which works without problems in the GTK shells of Unity and GNOME (but not in XFCE). This is absolutely necessary for GNOME Shell. But the rest will have to be designed in the “Apple” style manually. In ElementaryOS this design is already “ideologically correct”, even if not completely identical, so it makes sense to follow the development of this distribution.