How to Network A Mac to Ubuntu Easily

On your Mac click the Apple logo in the upper left of your screen then>System Preferences>Internet & Network>Sharing

Then check the box that says, “File Sharing.” Click the ‘Options’ button and uncheck the ‘Share files using AFP.’ Then check the box that says ‘Share files and folder using FTP’

Now go to your Ubuntu machine click on ‘Places’ then ‘Network’ and your Mac will show up. At that point you’ll have to enter in your Mac’s username and password. Doesn’t look like ‘log in anonymously’ will work. Now you can transfer files and folders easily from Ubuntu to your Mac. Simply open a folder within the Ubuntu Computer, click the files you want to share (to choose them individually) or from the upper tool bar you can click ‘Select All.’ Then select ‘Copy’ and go to your Mac folders that you’ve opened up in Ubuntu and select ‘Paste’ into anywhere on the Mac that you want to put them. And now all those files are on your Mac in an instant, instead of having to save them to a disc (Oh did I tell you that my CD drive on my old machine was kaput, so that wasn’t an option, and the DVD drive was holding the Ubuntu boot disk) or buying a USB thumb drive (But hey, that wouldn’t be bad, every one needs a thumb drive!)

It’s that simple.

Now, the story behind this. I have an older Windows XP machine that got infected a while back when I clicked a supposed link to a video of Paris Hilton having sex (:-)). Anyway, even after removing virus, the damage was done, and although all my files were still there, the bug had hacked my registry to where I couldn’t open the C: drive. Then in an effort to fix it, I tried to use the original XP CD but only made it worse to where I couldn’t even boot windows at all. So Ubuntu comes to the rescue. I boot it from the disk, and I can read all the files on the computer that were originally created on Windows. But all I want to do is get those files off there and on to my Mac. So this does the trick.

Now, I suppose I would have to install Ubuntu on the hard drive in order for the Mac to ‘see’ the Ubuntu because at the moment, just booting it from the CD I don’t seem to have the choice to “Share Files” but I’m not willing to install Ubuntu onto the hard drive because it will wipe out all my old files. Once I get all the files I want to keep off the old machine, I’ll fully install Ubuntu onto the old machine. Ubuntu is really clean, looks cool, and is a lot of fun. So I’m going to stick with it on this old machine instead of paying for Windows 7.