Mac OS X For Unix Geeks, 4th Edition

Chapter 9. Dual-Boot and Beyond

With the arrival of Intel-based Macs came the ability to easily run multiple operating systems. PowerPC-based Macs had this ability to a limited extent, but the switch to widely supported Intel hardware gave Mac users access to more operating systems that they could install on their Macs. Not only that, but the performance of virtual machines on Macs suddenly increased by orders of magnitude, because users were no longer dependent on software that emulated an Intel CPU on a PowerPC: they could take advantage of the ability to virtualize key components of the underlying hardware. You have a couple of choices for running multiple operating systems on the Mac:

Running on the bare metal

If you want to run an alternative operating system on your Mac, many choices are available. Linux and NetBSD will run on just about any kind of Mac, all the way back to the 68k-based Macintoshes, and Intel-based Macs can run nearly any operating system that can run on a stock Intel-based PC. However, if you want to be able to boot into another operating system on your Mac, you’ll need to repartition your drive. We’ll talk about this in the Linux on Mac Hardware” section later in this chapter; much of what you read in that section will apply to other operating systems as well.

Running on Mac OS X

When it comes to running Windows, Linux, or other operating systems under Mac OS X, you have several options. VMware Fusion and Parallels Desktop are two of the best known, but there ...