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I have a MacBook with a 200GB partition and 50GB free space. When I boot from a USB stick to install Ubuntu 13.04 the installer gives me the option of "installing alongside Mac OS X" or "something else".

I'm happy partitioning drives etc but I'm just curious about what the installer does to the file system in the first option.

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    1. There are some caveats, please follow the official guide MactelSupportTeam/AppleIntelInstallation. 2. On this page you can find a release-specific post-install guide. 13.04 is not available yet. 3. Just for completeness: You'll have to replace 13.04 or upgrade it with 13.10, between October 2013 and January 2014. (more info) Instead, if you want to keep it until 2017, choose 12.04 (which is Long Term Support)
    – ignis
    Jun 22, 2013 at 7:54
  • That page is very useful but are all mac specific builds 64 bit? I need to install the 32 bit version (as I develop with Xojo which doesn't support 64 bit yet. Also I thought installing the latest version would have the most recent bug fixes. Jun 22, 2013 at 11:19
  • @Garry The 64-bit version of Ubuntu can run 32-bit applications too.
    – jobukkit
    Jun 22, 2013 at 13:23
  • @Garry New versions introduce new features, however the bug fixes are backported to all the previous supported releases. That is, 12.04 and 12.10 do receive bug fixes.
    – ignis
    Jun 22, 2013 at 13:28
  • @Garry I'll quote the page: "You can download the Ubuntu Desktop Edition ISO from ubuntu.com. (You can choose 32-bit or 64-bit, the choice is yours. If you want to see the pros and cons, you can check out the sticky.)"
    – ignis
    Jun 22, 2013 at 13:33

2 Answers 2

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The "Install alongside Mac OS X" option installs Ubuntu on the free (With free I mean 'not occupied by a partition') space on your hard drive.

You can create 'free' space using Disk Utility under Mac OS X.

Ubuntu will partition the free space to have a partition for Ubuntu, and a 'swap' partition that Ubuntu sometimes needs to work correctly. (The swap partition will probably never be more than 4GB)

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  • It would be cool to mention (if you know) how much space Ubuntu uses for swap. Is it a percentage of the free space, or a percentage of the RAM? And how much is that percentage?
    – Alaa Ali
    Jun 22, 2013 at 7:56
  • @Alaa Added it.
    – jobukkit
    Jun 22, 2013 at 7:59
  • Many users suggest having the swap partition be the same size as your computer's RAM (or double it).
    – jvriesem
    Apr 4, 2016 at 17:08
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The swap area is recommended to be double the size of RAM on your PC.If you want more you can increase your swap area. Swap is used only if the RAM is of less size.

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    Who recommends it? AFAIK it's a hoax. There's no reason for which a machine that has 512 MB of RAM should have less swap than one that has 2 GB of RAM.
    – ignis
    Jun 29, 2013 at 18:41

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