How to Create a Bootable Ubuntu USB Drive Using Mac

Are you interested in experimenting with an alternative operating system on your PC? If so, creating a bootable Ubuntu USB drive using Mac is a great way to get started. In this tutorial, I'll show you how to do just that.

To begin, open a web browser and navigate to the Ubuntu download page. From here, click on the 'Download' button to select the appropriate version of Ubuntu for your needs. For my example, I want to create a USB drive for fairly low-specced Windows PCs, so I have selected 32-bit (for machines with less than 2GB RAM) and clicked the Download button.

At the time of writing, the current version of Ubuntu is 14.04 LTS, which was released in April 2014. In the dropdown menu, under 'Choose your flavour', ensure that you select the appropriate version for your needs.

Once the download is complete, you will need to create a bootable USB drive using Mac. To do this, insert a blank USB drive into your Mac and open Disk Utility. Select the USB drive from the list of available drives on the left-hand side of the window, then click on the 'Erase' tab.

In the 'Erase' tab, select the 'Quick Erase' option and enter a name for the USB drive in the 'Name' field. Click on the 'Erase' button to complete the process.

Next, open the terminal app on your Mac and type the following command:

`sudo /Applications/Utilities/Boot\ Camp\ Assistant.app/Contents/Resources/createbootableusb.sh /path/to/ubuntu.iso /path/to/usbdrive`

Replace `/path/to/ubuntu.iso` with the location of the Ubuntu ISO file you downloaded earlier, and replace `/path/to/usbdrive` with the name of the USB drive you created in Disk Utility.

Press Enter to run the command. The process may take a few minutes to complete, but once it is finished, your Mac should automatically restart and boot into Ubuntu.

Regardless of whether you have thousands of workstations or not, experimenting with Ubuntu from a USB drive is a great way to get an introduction to this interesting and alternative operating system. Since its first release in October 2004, Ubuntu has grown rapidly in popularity, and it is now estimated that over 20 million users worldwide use the operating system.

Based on Debian Linux, Ubuntu is also being increasingly adopted for large-scale public sector deployments, notably the Gendarmerie Nationale, which replaced expensive Microsoft Office licenses with OpenOffice for 5,000 workstations. With its user-friendly interface and vast array of software applications available, Ubuntu is a great choice for anyone looking to explore an alternative operating system.

I hope this tutorial has been helpful in showing you how to create a bootable Ubuntu USB drive using Mac. Happy experimenting!

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