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The other night, I followed the directions posted here and successfully installed and configured Ubuntu 8.10 on my MacBook Pro. I wanted OS X and Ubuntu as options at startup but I could have just installed Ubuntu or made it a trifecta with OS X, Ubuntu and Windows as options at startup.

It is a pretty simple process: Use OS X’s BootCamp utilitiy to create a partition on your hard drive. I created a 30 GB partition which is plenty of space for now. Then, install rEFIt. Next, boot from the Ubuntu 8.10 disc. At startup, with rEFFIt, you can choose to boot OS X or from the Ubuntu CD. Once running on the Ubuntu LIVECD, use gparted to delete the partition that you just created. Finally, start the Ubuntu installer from the Desktop icon and select to install on the “largest continuous free space”. On the last screen of the installer, click the advanced button and choose to install grub to “/dev/sda3″.

I like Ubuntu running on my MacBook Pro. There a few things that I needed to setup that made running Ubuntu feel like OS X. A few things I first noticed and fixed with a few Google searches: 2 finger scrolling, right-click and closing the laptop lid for hibernate/sleep mode.

So I have heard and read a little bit about the growing adoption of Macs in corporate culture. The first thing that comes to my mind is sure, why not? Now I know there are a large number of MSCE’s clasping to there certifications and screaming “No Way!”. Look, I appreciate and value the MSCE support staff at every place I have worked and I appreciate their knowledge base, especially when my 9-5 machine has problems. The key here is that this is not a battle of OS’s, this is about choice and allowing users to use what helps them get more work done.

I am currently a Java developer working mostly with Web technology and if I didn’t have to use an IDE that is coupled with a scrambled egg of an application server, I would be writing code on a Mac. Do I think it can be done? Yeah, I might need to have a Windows machine around to support some of the applications that I need for the legacy systems, but eventually the legacy systems will be put to sleep. I guess I might need the Windows machine for my email client because it would not run on OS X, but I am pretty sure I could just use another email client on my Mac. I already move my calendar appointments into Google Calendar because my email client’s calender is buggy.

I have been off of Microsoft Office for over a year now and off of Outlook for over two years on my personal machine but Office still invades my corporate life. I still have a VM of Windows running under Parallels just in case I need IE for something, but that is rare. I am more likely to be running a VM of Ubuntu in Parallels to get more friendly with Linux and what it has to offer. Again, I do not hate Windows, it has it’s place, but if I do not need it, why would I use it?

I understand that the infrastructure in each corporate environment has to be prepared to deal with multiple OS’s and there are security and support concerns that cannot be put in place overnight, but it is something to think about. If user A can get the job done working on OS X on a Mac and user B would like to use a flavor of Linux, then why not make the users happy? There is obviously a cost involved with this kind of decision and for some businesses, they want to stick to what they know best. There will be a point and time when we are all going to work with less of a dependency on a platform or operating system and it won’t be a battle of operating systems, it will be a matter of preference.