[plug] Request for Comment - need suggestions and clue-bats

[Benjamin]

If you end up building a PC to run Linux on, I highly recommend you use
https://au.pcpartpicker.com/ and consult the /r/buildapc and /r/buildmypc
communities on Reddit. That way you can easily share your build plan with
friends, coworkers or other conspirators, and get decent feedback on them,
whereas Reddit gives you an idea as to where to start on your build.

~ B

On Mon, Feb 27, 2017 at 2:06 PM, Brad Campbell <brad at fnarfbargle.com> wrote:

> On 27/02/17 13:31, Onno Benschop wrote:
>
> Based on that track record, I'm reluctant to depreciate my use of VMware
>> on a Mac, but my last 8 months have been less than optimal. I purchased
>> a late 2015 27" Retina iMac and loaded it up with 64Gb of RAM. It's
>> currently running El Capitain.
>>
>> It crashes an awful lot. OWC have swapped out the RAM and tell me that
>> there is nothing wrong. Apple told me that they don't support 64Gb of
>> RAM, OWC says othewise. VMware tells me that the microcode on the
>> SkyLake processor is out of date, Intel agrees and Apple waves its hands
>> in the air in the hope I won't notice that they're not actually doing
>> anything.
>>
>
> My iMac is considerably older (it's a mid-2011) so small shovelfull of
> salt.
>
> I had _massive_ issues with lockups and stability that were *all* ram
> related. I ended up buying ram from OWC in 2012 and it has been apples
> since.
>
> I've always run Linux on the iMac, and I'm running it on an early 2015
> Macbook Pro Retina also. I get the odd hardware niggle (like the PCIe
> facetime camera does not work on the Macbook) but to be honest I knew what
> I was getting into when I bought them and all the bits I wanted to work do.
>
> OSX is cute and all but I still get work done faster with Linux, 3 heads
> and xmonad.
>
> Thunderbolt support got usable in kernel 3.18, so it has been around for a
> while. Of course, linux gives me early microcode support. Ooooh (lightbulb
> goes on)... there's a thought.
>
> Try knocking up a boot usb with linux on it to load the latest microcode,
> and then warm boot into OSX. That will quickly demonstrate if that is the
> issue without touching your existing software stack.
>
> I find the iMac makes a great Linux machine, but yours is a _lot_ newer
> than mine. On the other hand, my similarly aged Macbook Pro is awesome too.
>
> Regards,
> Brad
>
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