linuxmemes

Disclaimer: I would start with an "eWaste" computer from eBay, so I don't lose my main machine.

As someone mentioned, Dell Optiplex is a popular option.

We expect a flood of them (and others) to hit secondary used markets soon as companies offload anything that cannot run Windows 11 with secure boot enabled.

Disclaimer aside, assuming the 12 year old Macboom Pro is the secondary machine, the usual guidance applies:

• start with a distro that lets you test boot with a Live USB key.
• when in doubt, try Linux Mint first.

We love to debate the merits of our favorite distros, but when I was just getting started, I quickly discovered that most of what I wanted to try out actually ran on any distro. The only thing that varried was how many commands I needed to set each thing up.

I had manjaro on my 2012 MacBook for a while. It dual booted even. So I guess Arch?

MacBooks with intel chip are some of the best hardware to put Linux on, there are plenty of guides online on how to liberate your MacBook with Linux.

I tested a bunch of distros based on Debian, Arch and Fedora. By far, the easiest one was EndeavourOS just because it recognized the WiFi driver from the Live USB for me. Otherwise you will need to use a mobile phone with USB tethering to share internet so you can install the broadcom driver. Maybe things changed, but this was my experience in 2023.

Another driver you will need to install is the camera facetimehd . Everything else worked out-of-the-box for me.

After that, all the Linux variants I tried worked great, and it was mostly about distro philosophies and deciding the desktop environments (DE) I wanted to use, and that can be a bit overwhelming at first.

If that is your first experience, I just recommend to start with KDE or gnome. I find gnome works ok from the start, but KDE is easier to tweak. You can always test them from a Linux Live USB before committing them to your hardware. Steam Deck uses KDE for desktop mode.

There are others that are prettier or lighter you can test too: cinnamon, XFCE, MATE. Or even windows managers, but I would leave them alone until you are a bit more comfortable with Linux.

here are a few links in case some people need it in the future:

• facetimehd https://github.com/patjak/facetimehd/wiki/Installation
• https://boilingsteam.com/liberating-the-macbook-air-2013-with-linux-complete-guide/ (sorry for the plug, but it shows all my experience installing with an in-depth guide)
• https://endeavouros.com/

I just did a 2012 mac book air, well 'just' was probably 2023... but i digress

Ubuntu went straight on, just works, runs quickly. I'd have done debian which is more my go to, but I wanted to get the maximum level of community support and I think ubuntu has that.

basic instructions:

https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/create-a-usb-stick-on-macos#1-overview

or

https://dev.to/javibarbaran/reviving-a-2015-macbook-air-with-ubuntu-a-step-by-step-guide-to-breathe-new-life-into-your-old-mac-52c9

There were a couple of fights:

I wanted to swap the function and alt buttons to match my linux pc's, which was a special problem, because the FN key has its own special controller. There's a page and a utility for it somewhere on the internet that lets you reprogram it. I doubt you'd want that though, since you're already used to the layout.

The runtime on battery was awful, but it was a 4GB ancient Air. Out of the gate, I got a max of 2 hours, and OSX was getting 6-8 hours.

I installed TLP, twisted the governors WAY down, got it up to 4 hours while still usable. It still runs better in 4GB than OSX, just not as long.

Honestly, the Mac hardware is kinda rough for Linux. I run it on Lenovos and Dells and get 90+% of their normal battery life.

But it does work on Mac and runs quite well, even with very little RAM. I will say, you still need to throttle down that processor or they get a bit toasty :)

12 year old MacBook Pro? wtf, this is so greenfield. Some of the best Linux hardware ever.

As someone running two 2010 MacBooks on Linux, most of it is straightforward but I would add a few notes:

1. It was helpful for me, as someone very familiar with OSes and hardware but NOT Linux, to pull detailed hardware reports off my Macs before I wiped MacOS off all the way, and to have the specs either memorized or within easy reach whenever I started reading the technical stuff, because there's a good bit of that unless you happen to find a first distro that matches your hardware exactly. Instead, it's more likely you'll kiss some frogs before you find The One. Some distros are worth the trouble of making them work, some are not, but either way know your exact specs, especially for your wifi chip, so you can recognize them when you see them mentioned.

2. If you think you may ever run MacOS on them again, for any reason, but do not have another Mac handy, go ahead and make a MacOS bootable install drive now of the latest supported OS and throw it in a drawer. I never thought I would need it, but I did it out of an abundance of precaution and ended up using it multiple times, to my own surprise. But it's damned difficult to do without another Mac around to create the install media for you, so cover your ass and do it anyway if that MacBook is the last Mac you have.

3. I made a GParted Live USB and it's become one of the most used USB drives I own. No matter the OS, no matter the fuckery you've gotten yourself into (and clearly I have), if you can boot off USB it submits to the magic of GParted. Strong recommend.

4. Know that you cannot use Ventoy on MacBooks. At all. It kept crapping out on me, I spent hours on it, but when I read the forum (and the dev's comments to others with the same problem) turns out that nope, Ventoy does not work with MacBooks. Don't waste your time -- or do, if your nihilistic enjoyment of futility needs a strenuous workout.

5. If you don't already have a handful of available USBs, buy a ten (or more) pack of 8GB USB drives somewhere cheap, and just start rolling. They will all get used and reused as you go about trying out various distros and then comparing the ones you liked best, and you will appreciate not having to reformat the same USB every time you want to go to something different.

6. You've been told about Live USBs, but the thing with these older MacBooks is that a lot of it's just a pure crapshoot when it comes to a specific distro making happy times with your specific hardware. Usually it's the older Broadcom wifi chips, but I've had other problems. So when you boot into a live trial, you really want to make sure you're testing ALL the hardware that matters to you (wifi, Ethernet, sound, mouse, trackpad, display, camera, etc) and not just assuming.

And even then it's not certain: I just recently put Debian 13 with KDE Plasma on my mid-2010 MacBook and it sped through the Live USB trial and even the netinstall process on wifi, but as soon as it was running on the installed OS I had download speeds in the fucking bytes before I understood that the Live USB and the OS were using different Broadcom drivers. I found a guide and it was an easy enough fix, but definitely a pain in the ass. These things happen, so expect them.

7. Linux will recognize memory that MacOS will not, so go ahead and fill your actual motherboard capacity even if Apple says it's unsupported. Chances are good you'll want to upgrade other hardware as well; I've had good luck using iFixit for guides and it's worth the trouble to ask around for recommendations on where to buy, but in general avoid Amazon, especially for batteries.

8. After you've installed Linux, run it on a stand for good airflow, open the case and really clean your fan, and/or replace your thermal grease (which it's past time for anyway) because Linux does tend to run warm on these old MacBooks.

That said, these are excellent machines, a fun project, and honestly I think I like them more now than when I first got them: I never knew how versatile they could be. Hope some of this helps you.