Well, I figured that welcome posts were overrated so I thought I’d jump right in with a sort of how-to/review of installing Ubuntu Linux on a Mac. I am using a unibody MacBook, however, the process should be the same with all Macs; the only changes, if any, should occur once it comes time to install the drivers for things like the multi-touch trackpad in Ubuntu.
Acquiring an Ubuntu Installation CD
Ok, first of all you’ll need to get a copy of Ubuntu. By far the easiest way is to simply download a free copy from the Ubuntu website and then burn the .iso file yourself. However, if you have a very slow internet connection and don’t want to tie it up by downloading a 725MB file, you can always go to one of many Ubuntu retailers and spend a few bucks on a CD.
If you have chosen to download a copy of Ubuntu then you’ll now need to burn the .iso to a CD and make it bootable. The easiest way to do this is to simply fire up Disk Utility (Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility), which makes the disk bootable automatically. Once you’re in Disk Utility just click on your disc drive in the list of available drives in the left pane and click burn.
In my case the Ubuntu 9.10 .iso shows up in the left pane, however, this is only because I've previously used the image. It won't show for most people.
From there Disk Utility will prompt you to select the image you want to burn. Select the Ubuntu .iso and hit “Burn” or enter.
The exact size of the .iso is 724.4MB rather than 725MB.
Once you’ve selected the Ubuntu image simply insert a blank CD or DVD, leave all of the standard settings, and click “Burn” once again. It will take a while to burn the Ubuntu disk so go and do something else for 20 minutes or so.
Partitioning your Hard Drive
If you have an external drive that you wish to install Ubuntu onto then you can skip this section. If, like me, you want to install Ubuntu your internal drive so that you can easily switch between it and OS X then this part is very important.
We won’t actually create a new partition, rather we’ll resize OS X’s partition, so that we have enough free space to accommodate the new operating system. You’ll see why later.
Still in Disk Utility and again in the left pane, select your hard drive. Then go to “Partition” and resize the partition where OS X is located by dragging on the bottom, right-hand corner of the rectangle representing it until you have as much free space available as you desire. I’ll be going with 40GB, since that will give me enough space to work with while not taking away too much from OS X, which will continue to be my primary OS.
You'll notice, that I'm doing this with an "Untitled" partition at the "end" of the drive. That's my Win7 partition.
Once you’ve resized the partition on which OS X is installed hit “Apply” in the bottom right and wait for Disk Utility to finish.
That’s all that needs to be done inside of OS X, so go ahead and insert your Ubuntu installation CD and restart.