This Antix 8.0 is running on an Intel iMac(early 2008 I think)

I migrated to an iMac in September last, after trying Mepis 7 for a while on a Dell PC that started with Windows XP SP2. I was willing to give up XP totally out of mostly frustration with the system. Mepis 7 was OK but I had a couple of pieces of Windows software that I could not dump for various reasons. I was getting used to Linux and enjoyed the philosophy.

However, accidentally when out with a friend who was buying a MacBook Pro, I came across the Intel iMac desktop at a very reasonable price that was able to run Windows XP in a partition with Apple's"bootCamp". On impulse I bought it there and then.

I have been very pleased with my impulsive purchase so far and have eventually found Sun's"VirtualBox" to run XP for the two pieces of XP software I can't dump. XP running in BootCamp was slow to start up, OK for running, but oh so slow to start and no easy switching between the two systems of Leopard and XP.

I then tried Parallels for running the XP software . That had my wireless keyboard tied up in knots, so then I moved to CrossOver.

That worked of a fashion with one of my XP softwares, but as CrossOver didn't support the software I had, I looked decided to look further afield and then found VirtualBox. This seems stable and is very easy to use. Even to the extent of being able to run both the Mac system Leopard 10.5.6 at the same time AND to be able to switch at a click to XP makes life much easier.

Whilst I'm reasonably happy with the iMac setup with VirtualBox, this Antix Linux running on an iMac looks interesting, especially as I know that the VirtualBox also has a Linux version to enable XP to run in it.

Congratulations to the Mepis.Antix staff in producing this version of Linux. It seems to have loaded very smoothly, and the WiFi connection to my router connected without any problems.

I have yet to try the printer connection for my HP C8180, that also has a WiFi connection and a USB one.

My Wireless keyboard with touch pad, Adesso WKB-4000MAC, is also working smoothly.

So thank you Mepis/Antix, you might see me dropping the Apple Leopard system in favour of Antix working on an iMac hardware. We will see.

However, the Mac system is very good and user friendly without Windows frustration, I still have a bit of longing to explore Linux more, hence this downloading of this beta version of Antix, and also to find out if it would run on an Intel iMac.

Welcome to the antiX family, there are many of us here who run various systems, I personally use antiX on my laptops, I have slowly migrated away from windows, the only apps I continue to need windows for are, one work related, and the other is Quicken, I have years of data and have not found a really satisfactory replacement yet. My wife has an IMAC 20", I installed VMWARE Fusion and she can run windows on that machine and it works great. Actually, it runs better on the Imac than on the old windows desktop that I now run, dual booting Mepis 8.0 and MS XP. I am on the road quite often and nothing beats antiX, wireless works flawlessly. I do not have to worry about having my machine compromised, as do my fellow employees who are very paranoid when using windows while on the road. I try to encourage my friends to give Linux a shot, but most are too entrenched in the MS mentality to explore anything new. There are many knowledgeable folks here and on mepislovers that can help you on your road to freedom, so again welcome.

cheers,
oldhoghead

oldhoghead: I was like you in that one of the only remaining hold-outs for me was Quicken. I tried a number of linux alternatives and just wasn't happy with them. I tried gnucash and thought it was a little too complicated. I later came back and am now happily using it. After the initial time intensive setup it has worked very well for me. I actually prefer it to Quicken now and have made the complete switchover. If you haven't tried it yet...or were scared away after the initial look...I would encourage you to spend the time to set it up and give it a go. The more I use it the more I like it. Kinda like linux.

Grisbi may be another alternative to Quicken/Gnucash. It will import you quicken files I believe.

Johnbb,

welcome to antiX and have fun using it.

Sorry...forgot to welcome you johnbb! Please forgive my poor manners. Welcome and I'm sure you will have fun with antiX. You will find a friendly helpful bunch in this forum that are unrivaled in linux forums.

Oldhoghead: gnucash will also open quicken files. I successfully imported my quicken data in but decided to start fresh and create things from scratch with gnucash.

Thanks impuwat & eriefisher,

will take a look at those apps, would love to ditch windows permanently!

cheers,
oldhoghead

I finally made the switch this year from Quicken to MoneyDance. It's a Java app that runs on windows, linux and mac. There is a cost for it, but it's been worth it for me. The data input is very close to Quicken's; I didn't need to relearn how to input the data to the degree I did with other linux financial apps that I tried. And as the others have said, there are lots of choices.