We're serious about the utility of quadruple-booting Macs, particularly with the 2020 MacBook Pro, but at the end of the day, this is all just something fun to do, instead of succumbing to existential dread . . .

Pretty much every INTEL-BASED Mac can be configured to triple-boot with relative ease, but the addition of chromeOS creates multiple layers of complexity, and is highly hardware dependent. Check the Models tab for a breakdown of models guaranteed to quad-boot and others we'll be testing.

Since "Think quadratic." is about balancing power and efficiency, and you really only need to be concerned with efficiency on laptops, the 2020 MacBook Pro is the most recommended.   However, the 2018 Mac mini is likely to offer the most power of all quadruple-bootable macs.

You can buy a used Mac from the usual places online - we do an affiliates program for reputable resellers of Macs, but it's up to them keep their inventory up-to-date. From time-to-time, after we test various models, we may also have Macs availble for sale - you just have to let us know if you want it pre-configured to quadruple-boot.

It's "Quadratic" primarily because the market is vertically and horizontally segmentated in four distinct areas. Vertically, how we use computers comes down to powerful workstations (desktops), mobile workstations (laptops), presentation tools/entertainment units (tablets), and portable communications devices (smartphones/watches). Horizonatally, the four major OS's are representative of who we are as users, with Apple/macOS making "white collar," high-end crowd, Microsoft/Windows making up the "blue-collar," workhorse crowd, Linux making up the "no collar", independent crowd, and Google/chromeOS making up the "new collar," non-traditional crowd. To "Think quadratic" is to bridge these gaps and utilize the best of all worlds in an all-in-one device. But yes, on a more general level, there are computers that can natively boot many more than four OS's, but this is the first we've seen that can boot the major four - macOS, WIndows, Linux, AND chromeOS.

There's no catch. It works and it works well. No flawlessly, but not even out-of-the-box Macs work flawlessly. There are a few drawbacks and areas needing improvement, particularly with Brunch/chromeOS, but overall the experience is exponentially better than using a computer with just the one, pre-installed OS.

As far as macOS and Windows is concerned, the updates come from the official sources. Even updates for Linux comes from official sources, unless you're on a Mac with a security "T-chip," then you have to added and additional, but no less official, respository. Brunch updates come from the developer's GitHub/PWA, but chromeOS updaes come directly from Google. rEFInd updates have to be done manually, but likely won't be needed. We strongly recommend backing up the entire disk before doing updates in any OS. NOTE: The full disk backup process is one of the areas needing improvement on security "T-chip" Macs.

Possibly, but there haven't been any major issues with rEFInd requiring alternatives be explored. If you discover issues or if you know of benefits in using other bootloaders, feel free to contact us and let us know.

The price of a used Intel-Mac depends on which model and from where you purchase, but used, pristine, maxed-out 2020 MacBook Pros should NOT cost more than $1800.    If you're wanting to purchase a Mac and configure it to quadruple-boot yourself, our affiliates are vetted and known for fair pricing and great customer service.    Or, you can buy one preconfigured from us, when we have models available.    Keep in mind, Windows is the only OS that's not free; so, you'll need a license tied to your Outlook.com account.    There are a few third-party apps that also enhance the experience.

Whether you can install the latest updates of the four major OS's - macOS, Windows, Linux, and chromeOS - depends on what hardware you have and the manufacturer of that hardware (the Guides indicate the maximum OS's with each model), but beyond that, particularly with Linux, the version is totally up to you. We highly recommend Ubuntu and our guides focus on Ubuntu.

All you really need to know is where to find the Terminal (in macOS and Linux) or Command Prompt (in Windows). You can just copy/paste commands from our guides after that, but it helps to also be familiar with basics of those commands, for which there are several resources out there.

Again, depends on which model you have, but in general, Macs are known for their longevity, even though Apple is known for forcing obselesence. Macworld believes Macs tend to last eight to ten years. Our founder is making his 2020 MacBook Pro the last computer he ever uses.

There are numerous reasons why natively booting multiple OS's and virtualizing those OS's partitions is better than simply virtualizing alone, foremost of which is the ability to boot into a working OS and fix an issue with a non-working OS, after a buggy update. There are other instances when different OS's, installed on partitions on the same disk has proven a lifesaver and they'll be recounted in the News section in due time.

No, actually, we can't, and that's a good question. Windows and Ubuntu are the only OS's that can be virtualized in macOS (though we may find a way to virtualize macOS and Linux in Windows/macOS and Windows in Linux eventually). Google has programmed chromeOS such that it can't be virtualized, but it doesn't really need to be, since it is meant to be a purely browser-based OS. So long as you have your Google account syncing across your devices and you're logged in, just opening a Chrome browser in macOS, Windows, or Linux is like virtualizing chromeOS.

Brunch is a Linux-based chromeOS emulator designed by a French coder by the name of Sebanc. Because Apple removed the SDXC from most Mac laptops after 2016 and because Google officially supports only a select few Macs before 2016, Brunch is the only way to effectively run chromeOS on newer Macs as of now. There are still some kinks that need to be worked out and we're looking into testing various configurations.

Donations would be used to advance the cause — purchase Macs and accessories to test, cover costs of maintaining this website, and compensation for the time and energy spent. Donations ultimately let us know you're a "Quadratic Thinker" too and we appreciate your joining the cause!