Try it on a VM like VirtualBox (free, OS X supported). Among the advantages, you get vastly superior hardware support, particularly with the trackpad.
Source: Running Debian Wheezy on a 2011 Air.
edit to add: Here's a quick list what running Debian on a VM gives you:
* Seamless full-screen linux with full hardware access (e.g. GPU)
* Advantage of native OS X drivers (particularly the amazing trackpad -- linux drivers crippled it in my experience)
* Instant, lag-free transition between linux/OS X -- e.g. four-finger "swipe" gesture between desktops.
* Shared linux/OS X filesystem ("shared folders")
* Zero hassle with linux wifi, custom bootloader hacks (rEFIt), etc. VirtualBox has first-class support in Debian -- everything's just an apt-get away: https://wiki.debian.org/VirtualBox
However, performance is shite. I ended up going for a native install and you can appreciate the difference. That is, if you run Gnome 3 (which is a pile of shite as well). When on other DMs, if you can call xmonad a dm, virtual box was just awesome, for exactly the reasons you mentioned.
Comments
Try it on a VM like VirtualBox (free, OS X supported). Among the advantages, you get vastly superior hardware support, particularly with the trackpad.
Source: Running Debian Wheezy on a 2011 Air.
edit to add: Here's a quick list what running Debian on a VM gives you:
* Seamless full-screen linux with full hardware access (e.g. GPU)
* Advantage of native OS X drivers (particularly the amazing trackpad -- linux drivers crippled it in my experience)
* Instant, lag-free transition between linux/OS X -- e.g. four-finger "swipe" gesture between desktops.
* Shared linux/OS X filesystem ("shared folders")
* Zero hassle with linux wifi, custom bootloader hacks (rEFIt), etc. VirtualBox has first-class support in Debian -- everything's just an apt-get away: https://wiki.debian.org/VirtualBox
However, performance is shite. I ended up going for a native install and you can appreciate the difference. That is, if you run Gnome 3 (which is a pile of shite as well). When on other DMs, if you can call xmonad a dm, virtual box was just awesome, for exactly the reasons you mentioned.
Why would you use gnome if you've used xmonad :)I run crunchbang (debian w/ openbox) and it's awesome.
So, you're not running "awesome"? So is crunchbang now awesome? Or awesome has been renamed to crunchbang?
The naming of these is confusing :-)
Wouldn't performance be better with VMWare Fusion? I think it includes even 3D acceleration.