> ObOnTopic: does anybody know if CentOS supports the MacBookPro7,1 model > with the funky SATA controller? It's nontrivial to find any hard > information about even kernel support, much less whether a given distro > has included any of the relevant patches in its kernel. I don't mind > OS X, but for some purposes I really prefer a linux-based desktop. If you already have the computer, I would recommend you to give a try to RHEL 6 Beta 2 and report to Red Hat any problem you have while they are still polishing their release. I was surprised, but they have been pretty helpful and motivated with issues that I reported which are specific to Apple hardware. As per my other mail, I would not recommend CentOS 5 on a Mac laptop anyhow (because of the touchpad), although this is still what I mostly do when traveling. Otherwise, Ubuntu is probably your safest bet (but it is a pretty fast moving target). In any case, I recommend you to partition your disk as soon as you get the computer and leave says 10 / 20 GB for a Linux. Even if it does not work today, it may (will) work in a few months, and it is more dangerous to repartition while you already have important data on your Mac OS. As long as you have the disk space reserved for it, it will be safe to try various Linux distributions over and over.