Linux on an iMac, best of both Worlds?

Just an idea for you. There is an entire Apple Discussion forum dedicated to Boot Camp and Windows XP.
Folks there may also be using Linux as well!
The Forum is at the bottom of the main Apple Discussions page under Windows Compatible Technology.
Here is a link;
Forum: Boot Camp Public Beta

Is anyone using Linux on their Apple, or has anyone
tried it? One of my kids uses Linux and she swears
by it. Reading the specs this looks like it just
might be the best of all worlds.

The Linux OS S.U.S.E Linux Desktop 10 is supposed to
come out Monday in a free trialware form.

Does anyone have previous experience running Linux on
their Apples?

Thanks,

Doug

Free trialware? The majority of Linux distros are free. The ones that I keep hearing about regularly these days are Fedora Core 5 (version 6 is nearly finished) and Mandriva Linux (formerly Mandrake)

I've run Yellow Dog Linux as well as Ubuntu and Mandriva Linux on a couple of PowerPC Macs for experimentation purposes but not yet on an Intel Mac. It was fun and interesting to a point but became increasingly frustrating over time (particularly with peripherals, wireless networking etc...). They still have a far way to go to equal the ease of setup and useability that exists with Mac OS X. Don't get me wrong, Linux today is far better than it was years ago but it still requires more work.

You can always play around with the UNIX underpinnings of Mac OS X or use a Virtual Machine to run Linux in a separate window to get a feel for it. Parallels software allows you to run Windows and Linux in a VM although it is commercial software ($49.99 until July 15 and then it goes up).

And Parallels Workstation is able to load Linux in a Virtualization machine:

http://www.parallels.com/en/products/workstation/mac/

I haven't tried SUSE Linux and I agree that Linux in general has come a long way in terms of useability but I still find it too frustrating to use regularly (you may be different) whether it be from lack of driver support or just trying to find the right tool to do what I want to do (Linux tends to give you a lot more which can be a blessing and a curse). For that reason, I prefer to try various flavours of Linux in a virtual machine. I have also tried an older version of Linspire which was a far better experience for me but not enough to use regularly. Essentially, it is still more of a 'geek' computer system than not and requires more effort than I'm willing to put out at this point.

Yellow Dog Linux on PowerPC offered the best overall experience to me most likely as they were building it to run (for the most part) on Apple hardware. That resulted in less frustration than usual. With the move to Intel, perhaps there will be a bigger pool of developers looking to take advantage of Apple hardware but that remains to be seen.

I suppose I've also grown so use to the relative sleekness, functionality and ease of use of Mac OS X that I can't imagine installing Linux on my iMac (short of in a VM). The same goes for Windows. Everything on my iMac CD just works and I don't know which of its technologies (i.e. bluetooth, iSight camera, video card, airport wireless etc...) are even supported in Linux without having to spend time searching for and downloading (if possible) drivers, hacks etc...

So, at the moment, when I do try a new distro of Linux, it is usually in a VM or on older PPC or on a older, formerly Windows PC. I don't want to discourage anyone from trying Linux - on the contrary, I think it's beneficial to try out and learn about as many systems as possible. But from my experience with it, the user must be more prepared and willing to put out more effort to makes things work than is the usual case with OS X.

Doug, I have not messed with Linux too much, but I find it to be more frustrating than Windows. It is up to you of course and it is free, so there really is no harm in trying.

I found THIS article on triple booting with Tiger, Windows, and gentoo. I might give it a try om my BlackBook - just because I can! LOL!