OS X Like Distro?

I would recommend Ubuntu because I actually just installed it tonight on my XPS M170 and it picked up every piece of hardware, etc automatically.. including my wireless. A lot of people say that the Gnome window manager reminds them of the same look & feel of OSX, and that is the default used by Ubuntu.

I tried getting Fedora Core 5 running last night but had nightmares getting wireless to work so I killed it just about an hour ago.

Here's an instructional blog on how to customize ubuntu to look like osX.
http://www.taimila.com/ubuntuosx.php

If you want to learn ubuntu then read through www.ubuntuguide.org and www.ubuntuforums.org. There are other good distros that i'm sure others can direct you to.

hate to scare you, but linux in its purest form is NOT osx (seablade will back me up on this).....not meant to be. Yes... the Gnome desktop is very useful and is about as close to the look and feel of MacOS as KDE gets to the look and feel of windows.

As a noob distro I also highly recommend Ubuntu. My advice to you is don't make it what its not. If you want os x you can run it on your pc....with some work and shady legality. Use linux for what it is.

Heh ABF is right.

OS X is a VERY good unix based desktop distribution, for general desktop use. It is not nearly as flexible as linux, but neither is it intended to be. It also as a result of not being as flexible, and having dedicated hardware to it, is much easier to use in general and to learn for many people than linux.

That being said, the closest native equivalent to the eye candy and general setup of OS X is a Window Manager called e17, still in extraordinarily heavy development, and generally not considered ready for 'general public'(Meaning more those that are not familiar with programming, and arent ready to work with bugs, I use it for my personal WM myself with great success, but it is far from user friendly to set up on most distros).

As others have suggested, if getting a Mac is not an option, then Ubuntu is probably going to be the best distro for you to start out on. Taking a quick glance on the giude posted it looks pretty decent if you do truly want to emulate OS X, but I dont know how it handles interaction as I have never tried it. Also I believe there may be a guide for getting e17 running on Ubuntu, however though as I mentioend above, it most likely will NOT be easy or friendly, I dont reccomend it until you are used to linux at least.

Seablade

Also just for clarification, while OS X and Linux may both be based in Unix, they are not the same OS, and do not have the same underlying structure. OS X is based off of BSD and Linux is its own OS(Obviously) There are some differences between the two, advantages and disadvantages of both.

And yes some distributions of linux take advantage of its flexibility to try to be the best desktop distributions they can be. Personally I do run OS X for my general desktop myself, and use Linux for my more dedicated Audio Workstation along with several project boxes for various uses(Media Center Server, etc)

Seablade

got a few more "2 cents"

You will not find an OSX-like or a "wannabe mac os" desktop linux distro for one simple reason....desktop linux wants to take away marketshare from MS...thus they try to be as MS-like, "Windows friendly" as possible (and thus the popularity of KDE). I would take it as good news for you because you know windows, so if linux is windows-friendly for you...you'll adjust better.

That said...if you wanna plug-n-play (ie...install and go) then thumbs up for Ubuntu. If you wanna LEARN linux, I'd recommend something a tad more advanced, perhaps Gentoo, or if you don't feel like sitting around waiting for code to compile, then Slackware or Arch. They require a lot more work than ubuntu to get it just the way you like it, but they also make you use google, ask questions, live and learn.

I guess this question remains to be asked...whats your rig? Specifically I wanna know ati or nvidia, wireless card, and amount of ram. This will help us here better determine a good setup for what your computer can do.

I just had to do this to the other guy there to ABF Desktop DISTRIBUTIONS of Linux, and some of them at that. Not Desktop Linux Seablade

I use Kanotix Easter edition because it picks up all of my laptop's hardware. Ubuntu does not pick up my winmodem which I use at home, but it does pickup every thing else. I do like the Ubuntu setup but because it would take a lot of configuring to get it to pick up the modem, I don't use it. Knoppix is handy too (which Kanotix is a clone of) but like wise it doesn't pick up my winmodem(Toshiba-agere).

question is does he even use a modem. as far as i am aware ubuntu is the only distro that i can remember that actually picks up my modem, but even if it didn't i wouldn't care because 99% of the time i use wireless (1% wired) and both are picked up great (w00t! madwifi and sis900)

When going into linux, looking for it to look like OSX, or for most people look like Windows will let you down in your expectations.

Although I have used Linux for some time now, I am a still a noob in Linux.

I use Slackware 10.2 with Dropline Gnome. Try it all out is what i suggest.

These are two very different areas. Looks are easy. Most Linux installations can be themed to resemble OSX. Depending on which desktop manager and distro you use this can be easy or not so easy. To see some examples, check out;

http://themes.freshmeat.net/search/?...&Go.x=0&Go.y=0

To get OSX useability in a Linux distro will take much more effort and even then you won't get the SAME useability experience. For example, configure an OSX laptop for WiFi connectivity, and then take it to someplace with multiple WAPs, and see how easy it is to switch among them. To get the same effect in Linux you need something like Wlassistant, or Network Manager, and even then the experience, and for sure the WiFi setup, won't be the same. For a second test, try setting up hibernation on a Linux laptop (or Windows for that matter), and then do it on an OSX laptop. (Hint, all you have to do is close the lid on the OSX laptop..) Nothing else comes close to sleep, and wake from sleep, in the computer world. I once spent 5 weeks traveling with my Apple laptop, opening and shutting it at every client, flying from city to city, and I never powered down or rebooted my laptop for the entire trip. Try that with Windows or Linux..

I don't use OSX anymore, and as far as my limited experience with Linux distros goes, the install and setup of Ubuntu, came closest (although still far off) to a similar ease of use experience from OSX. (I certainly can't nominate Gentoo, which is what I actually use) So if you REALLY want ease of use like OSX, get OSX. If you want to jump into the hands on world of Linux, you can't get much better help than Ubuntu, as almost everyone else in the thread has already mentioned.. This is of course, completely and totally, In My Opinion only..

Good Luck..

jasn.....kinda a flaming post you got there. lets take it a piece at a time.

Looks: You're right...theming is the easy part. Gnome is probably the better WM to get that OSX-ish layout.

WiFi: Gnome Network Manager does just that. It will connect to any open (or wep protected) lan in seconds with just 1 click of the mouse.


Hibernation: As long as your laptop does not have an ATI card (or as long as you dont use FGLRX i should say) you should be able to do this very easily. Compile your kernel with suspend2, set up some acpi events so that when you press and release the power button, or close the lid, it will suspend to ram (or disk), then when you open teh lid, press the power button again and it will unsuspend. Simple process, done it on my uniwill with ubutu 5.10 when i disabled fglrx. (Windows for that matter on my thinkpad is configured to suspend and unsuspend when i open/close the lid)

Running for 5 weeks: There are reports of linux running for YEARS at a time w/o a reboot...so yeah, quite possible. Longest I ever ran my linux rig was a week before i shut it down. (typically i shut down every night)

no offense to you or anything....but all those things are very possible in linux.

Well for the record I have run Linux boxes months with no shutdown, however those didnt hibernate as usually they were my personal house server etc.

Havent made it to the year mark, but then again I usually play with the box to much to do that

Seablade

i think the hardest part for someone new to linux will be learning simple command line interface, which is kinda a necessary i personally find bash easier then sh but definetly ubuntu is the easiest distro, but i also think kubuntu's distro to be more osx-like... was never truly a fan of gnome, always went with kde but if they got a copy of the live cd's they can just pop them in give each a try and install to there preference, just make sure it's dapper drake, as it is much more compatible as far as plug and play goes. also check out Mandriva Linux, it's kinda flashy and was a fav. of mine prior to ubuntu

i dont like mandriva even though i used to run it on my desktop for about 1/2 year before i switched to Arch. just too many problems with it.