[Live-demo] [OSGeo-Discuss] OSGeoLive 7.0 status: alpha1

[Alex Mandel]

On 05/12/2013 06:12 PM, Hamish wrote:
> Alex wrote:
>> My understanding is that the +mac disables UEFI support
>> (something about the Mac implementation being weird and non
>> standard since it predates the standard),
>
> (and AFAIU they just call it EFI not UEFI, and if you want to
> regularly dual-boot the "rETIt" boot manager is your best friend)
>
Right but we can't expect users to have that installed just to use a 
flash drive. I actually recommend Virtual Machines to modern mac users 
because I know their hardware can handle it.

>> so yes newer machines can use it in Legacy boot mode.
>
> I had the fun time of trying to get ubuntu 12.04.2 installed on a
> new Windows 8 Acer laptop the other day. Even knowing what needed
> to be done it was a complete exercise in frustration. Since
> Windows was already installed as UEFI you couldn't set Legacy mode
> permanently without reinstalling W8 (I'm not sure if Windows 8 will
> even install without it), and to access the BIOS setting to
> disable "secure" boot the search-the-forums magic command was
> to set a bios supervisor passwrd first. @$#%#$%! Oh yeah, and you
> had to hold the shift key down while pressing poweroff in Windows
> to get it it actually shut down, instead of just quick wake from
> hibernation bypassing the BIOS access time-window. I'm afraid that
> simple dual booting by the general public has been made a thing of
> the past, in a rather clinical fashion. :-(

I did one recently. Only secure boot had to be turned off, nothing else. 
A few weeks after that, Ubuntu released Signed kernels that now work 
with secure boot, so you don't even need to do that (haven't tried yet). 
But I think you do need to use the 64 bit build.


>
>> But someone wanting to dual boot with a pre-installed win 8
>> box will have issues using that (do we really want to give
>> those people 32bit anyways?).
>
> The ubuntu download page for 13.04 specifically states that
> people with computers with a Windows 8 sticker on it will
> need to get the 64bit version, although I think that's more
> to do with their 64bit iso having UEFI support but the 32bit
> version not.
>
Correct

> there's nothing wrong with running 32bit+pae software on 64bit
> hardware unless you want to run with >2gb file support. I think
> any performance slowdown from the loss of registers will be
> overwhelmed by the DVD or USB i/o bottleneck anyway, so not a big
> deal.
>

Yes, I'm not really thinking about performance, but compatibility with 
more machines. Though I am finding quite a few people actually install 
from our release and for those I would think 64bit is a good thing.


>> The reason Dvds work on a Mac is that they always
>> boot in Legacy mode as detected by the Mac.
>
> which is at least something, but new Macs don't come with DVD
> drives, so...
>
>> Ubuntu still has 32bit because there is still plenty of
>> older hardware that isn't 64bit. If I though it would be
>> easy to apply the same hack they use to make +mac on a 32
>> bit build I would suggest that for max compatibility.
>
> It may or may not work, I don't know. As for me, I'm still very
> happy with my 32bit netbook for travelling/taking to conferences,
> & don't excect to replace it for that role anytime soon.
>
>
> Hamish
>

Really, I'm thinking about releasing some 64 bit options but still 
primarily focusing on the 32 bit build. The big thing for me is Mac 
support, several professors on my committee have Macs and are likely to 
travel to places and give OSGeo Live to people, but only if they 
actually see it for their own eyes on their computers. FYI, my campus is 
25%+ Mac, much higher than the world at large but I think that 10% is 
actually a decent number for North America and Europe (SF FOSS devs are 
very Mac heavy, in fact Code for America only has Macs, which is another 
group that might latch onto OSGeo Live).

Thanks,
Alex