My daughter is starting a college computing course next month and has been told they will be using linux.
She has a fairly recent, last 5yrs or less I think, intel macbook but knows nothing about linux or vm’s.
I advised her to install Ubuntu in a VM when she asked about it, she asked how to do this. Initial thought is Virtualbox but I’ve not used MacOS since well before it became MacOS nor used VirtualBox in many years, have heard of new shiny new things like UTM, Parallels & VMWare.
Is it a reasonable suggestion to just use VirtualBox? Is there a better option?
Bit of a dad moment; “Just install Linux and then I can help you”, “But how do I install Linux dad?”
If possible, buy an old Thinkpad for 50-100 bucks and install on a real hardware for the best experience.
I have no experience with any Mac hardware, but Virtualbox has improved a lot during the years. It won’t have accelerated graphics, but still fast and responsive.
I’m not sure there is a need to run linux on bare metal, or carry around a second laptop.
Just so you know, running it on bare metal on an Intel Mac is also quite easy using Bootcamp (which is preinstalled and guides you through the install process)
Does she even need Linux? 99% of things that run on Linux will also run on MacOS (or have a MacOS version). If you need a VM, Virtualbox is good enough. I’d recommend Ubuntu, simply because that’s what most people use, ergo you’ll find tutorials/information for every little aspect of it.
Does she actually need Linux or is using a unixoid OS fine? A lot of the time installing homebrew (or whatever the package manager was called) on MacOS can suffice for several use cases.
Other than that, if you’re not needing apple exclusive software on it, installing Linux on the Macbook can be a good option.
If you definitely want virtualization, go with VirtualBox
