[arch-general] Anyone willing to share experiences running Arch on a current-gen MacBook Pro?

[Eric Ryan Jones]

Hello Ankur,

Forgive any ignorance, but why do you want to buy a computer if you know its
optical drive is going to fail?  This seems more odd to me when that
computer costs as much as a Mac.  I would not buy a computer if I knew that
would happen.

Also, about the video cards, I know that an AMD would probably work, but
Nvidia's proprietary drivers work extremely well on Arch.  As long as you
know you will install Arch, I would recommend an Nvidia card if you want
your graphics to just work.  Sorry I don't know about the other Macbook
hardware.

Regards,

--Eric

-----Original Message-----
From: arch-general-bounces at archlinux.org
[mailto:arch-general-bounces at archlinux.org] On Behalf Of Ankur Sethi
Sent: Monday, March 19, 2012 3:44 PM
To: General Discussion about Arch Linux
Subject: [arch-general] Anyone willing to share experiences running Arch on
a current-gen MacBook Pro?

Hi,

I'm in the market for a high-end development + gaming machine (dual boot).
I've been a Mac user for the last 4 years and I'm used to their hardware, so
I'm naturally considering a MacBook Pro as one of my options. My old white
MacBook from 2008 runs Arch very well, but can the newer unibody MacBook
Pros run it? More specifically, I'm looking at the 2.4GHz model (MD322LL/A)
on this
page:

    http://www.apple.com/in/macbookpro/specs.html

Here are some things I'm particulary worried about:

  1. Does suspend/resume work?
  2. Does WiFi work? Does it work even after you suspend/resume?
  3. Can I boot the Arch installer from USB? This is a big one, since the
     optical drives in MacBooks _always_ fail after a few months of use.
  4. Does multi-touch work? If not, is the trackpad at least usable without
     multi-touch support?
  5. Does that AMD card play well with Linux? If not, is there a way to tell
the
     machine to ignore the discrete GPU and always use Intel HD Graphics?
  6. Does the keyboard backlight work? What about the ambient light sensors?
     Audio? Webcam?

I know there are many guides for installing Arch on a Mac, and I've read a
lot of them, but none of them go on to mention how pleasant (or unpleasant!)
their long-term experience with Linux on Mac has been. Is it worth all the
trouble?
Is it usable for doing actual work? Do things randomly stop working if you
upgrade your firmware? Do the Apple Store employees try to wipe your Linux
partition when you take your machine in for repairs?

Too many questions, I know. I've been saving up for a decent machine for a
year now, so I'm naturally anxious about making the right choice :)

--
Ankur Sethi